CYTOCHEMICAL SUBTYPES OF EIKENELLA-CORRODENS DEMONSTRATED BY CELLULARCARBOHYDRATE PATTERNS

The results obtained by Gothe et al. (7) by DNA-DNA hybridization of h uman Eikenella isolates indicated some genomic diversity at least at t he level of current species definition. We therefore analyzed the cell ular carbohydrates derived fi-om whole cell hydrolysates of 18 human i solates by capillary gas-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. All strains exhibited a common pattern which included ribose, arabinose/ly xose, glucose, galactose, glucosamine, heptose and an unidentified man nopyranoside. Rhamnose could be used to establish two cytochemical gro ups which could be further divided into two subgroups by galactosamine .