Occurrence of homospermidine as a major polyamine in the authentic genus Flavobacterium

Polyamines in various Flavobacterium strains and related eubacteria were analyzed. The major polyamine was homospermidine in all 12 strains of the eight authentic species of the genus Flavobacterium studied (F. aquatile, F. breve, F. balustinum, F. gleum, F. meningosepticum, F. odoratum, F. multivorum, and F. spiritivorum), and in F. ferrugineum, whose taxonomic position is uncertain but related to Flavobacterium. Spermidine was not detected in these flavobacteria. In another seven Flavobacterium species that are taxonomically different from Flavobacterium and belong to other genera, homospermidine was not detected. Key words: Flavobacterium, homospermidine, spermidine, arginine decarboxylase.