Fructose-bisphosphatase-deficient mutants of mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Fructose-bisphosphatase-deficient mutants of mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated by ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenesis using gluconate as the nonpermissive substrate, and all the sixty isolates possessed 10-30% of the parental enzyme activity. The mutants had low levels of fructose-biphosphate aldolase activity and could not normally synthesize alginate from any substrate except on Pseudomonas isolation agar plates. The results suggest the essentiality of fructose bisphosphatase activity for the growth or survival of P. aeruginosa and a probable linkage of genes controlling this enzyme with those of fructose bisphosphate aldolase and alginate biosynthesis.