Sphingomonas elodea is a species of bacteria in the genus Sphingomonas.
This species is important to humans due to the fact that it produces gellan gum, a suitable agar substitute as a gelling agent in various clinical bacteriological media[2] and especially important for the culture growth of thermophilic microorganisms in solid media.[3] When the gellan gum-producing bacterium was first isolated from a natural lily pond it was classified as Pseudomonas elodea based on the taxonomic classification of that time.[4] However, the gellan gum-producing bacterium was subsequently re-classified as Sphingomonas elodea based on the current taxonomic classification.[5]
Sphingomonas elodea metabolizes maltodextrin (oligosaccharides of glucose) externally into glucose by the putative exo-acting glucosidase.[6]Sphingomonas elodea utilizes the Entner-Doudoroff pathway for glucose metabolism.[5]
^Vartak NB, Lin CC, Cleary JM, Fagan MJ, Saier Jr MH "Glucose metabolism in 'Sphingomonas elodea': pathway engineering via construction of a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase insertion mutant." Microbiology (1995) 141, pages 2339-2350.
^Lin CC (1991). "Maltodextrin metabolism in Pseudomonas elodea during gellan fermentation". Proceedings of Annual Meeting of Society of Industrial Microbiology: 86.