Amino acid requirements of Legionella pneumophila

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Abstract
The amino acids required for growth and as energy sources by 10 strains of L. pneumophila were determined by using a chemically defined medium. All strains required arginine, cysteine, isoleucine, leucine, threonine, valine, methionine and phenylalanine or tyrosine. Most strains (7 of 10) required serine, and 2 strains had to be supplied proline before growth could be established. All 10 strains used serine and, to a lesser extent, threonine as the sole sources of Ca and energy. The Y [maximum molar growth yield] serine calculated was 94.9 .+-. 8.5 g (dry wt) of cells/mol of serine. Assuming that the value of Y ATP is 10.5, these results indicate that oxidative catabolism of 1 mol of serine yielded approximately 9 mol of ATP. This high yield suggests that although serine was the major C source, other amino acids may also be metabolized.