Growth phenotypes of Escherichia coli carrying a mutation of acidic phospholipid synthesis

We identified novel phenotypes of a pgsA3 mutant lacking the potential to synthesize phosphatidylglycerolphosphate, a precursor of phosphatidylglycerol. The first phenotype is limited cell growth at a high temperature, under the condition of low salt. The phenotype was co-transduced with a phenotype lacking the potential to synthesize phosphatidylglycerol in a P1 transduction experiment, and was restored by transformation with a plasmid containing a wild type pgsA gene. The second phenotype of the pgsA3 mutant was resistant to growth in the presence of a low concentration of kanamycin (4 μg/ml). P1 transduction and transformation with the plasmid containing the wild-type pgsA gene revealed that the pgsA3 mutation was also responsible for the second phenotype.