Effect of surface lipopolysaccharide on the nature of membrane vesicles liberated from the Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Membrane vesicles (MVs) were isolated from three isogenic lipopolysaccharide (LPS) mutants derived from the Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and compared with the parent strain. Parent cells possessed serotype 05 (A+B+) LPS whereas the three mutants contained A+B-, A-B+ and A-B-. The MVs from the mutants contained their expected phenotypic LPS and varied in size, especially A-B- MVs. Mass and total protein differences were also noted. When the parent and mutant cells were treated with the outer membrane-perturbing antibiotic gentamicin, all cells produced 3-5 times more MVs and these had great variation in size, mass and total protein. It is concluded that the type of cellular LPS affects both the natural and gentamicin-induced development of MVs.