Serpens flexibilis gen. nov., sp. nov., an Unusually Flexible, Lactate-Oxidizing Bacterium

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Abstract
An extremely flexible, motile, rod-shaped bacterium (0.3-0.35 by 8-12 .mu.m) was isolated from samples of pond mud. The organism can readily move through media containing 1% (wt/vol) agar. Only subsurface, spreading growth occurs on media containing < 1.5% (wt/vol) agar. In agar media, cells displayed serpentine-like motility and rapidly coiled and uncoiled into a variety of knot forms. The organism possesses a gram-negative type of cell envelope with a peptidoglycan layer containing muramic acid, glucosamine, glutamic acid, diaminopimelic acid and alanine in a ratio of 1.0/1.0/1.0/1.0/2.0, respectively. The cells possess bacterial flagella which occur in bipolar tufts (4-10 flagella per tuft) and to a lesser extent, singly over the surface of the cell. The organism only grew aerobically. Among the substrates tested, lactate was the only major energy and C source used. Carbohydrates, fatty acids and amino acids did not support growth. Casein hydrolysate, peptone and NH4Cl were used as N sources. Although vitamin mixtures and yeast extract stimulated growth, no vitamins were required for growth. Cell extracts contain high levels of tricarboxylic acid cycle enzyme activities but only trace levels of glycolytic enzyme activities. The guanine-plus-cytosine content of the DNA of the organism is 65.8 mol% (strain PFR-1, buoyant density). For this organism, apparently previously undescribed, the name SERPENS flexibilis gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of S. flexibilis is PFR-1 (=ATCC 29606).

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