AMENDED DATA ON ARGININE UTILIZATION BY SPIROPLASMA SPECIES

Hydrolysis of arginine is a classical diagnostic test for species in t he mollicute order Entomoplasmatales. In this paper we report data for arginine utilization by spiroplasmas, as determined by standard metho ds. In addition, modified methods sere developed for fastidious spirop lasmas, such as strain LD-1(T) (T = type strain), the Colorado potato beetle spiroplasma, Twenty-one spiroplasma strains representing 13 gro ups or subgroups and eight ungrouped spiroplasmas (seven of which repr esent putative groups) were studied, The arginine reactions of eight s trains were the same as the reactions reported previously, but previou sly reported positive tests for spiroplasma subgroups I-5 and I-6 (Spi roplasma insolitum) could not be repeated, and the data for the latter taxa are corrected. Although other workers have reported that additio n of carbohydrate to media may be necessary for the utilization of arg inine, the presence of glucose tended to obscure arginine hydrolysis I n our studies.