This investigation was made possible through funds granted by the California Committee on the Relation of Electricity to Agriculture, to whom the writer wishes to express his thanks. The work was conducted under the general direction of Professor W. V. Cruess and Professor B. D. Moses of the College of Agriculture of the University of California.
The extreme variability in fermentation reactions of lactobacilli is well known. Weiss and Rettger (1934), Curran, Rogers andWhittier (1933), andHowitt (1930) have ably reviewed this subject.The alterations in fermentative reactions have seldom however been clearly correlated with colonial dissociation. Roos (1927) isolated from one strain of Lactobacillus acidophilus three distinct fermentative and colonial types. Hadley, Bunting and Delves (1930) found that R variants obtained from S strains of oral aciduric bacteria fermented glucose readily but differed slightly in their reactions to the S type on other sugars. R variants, designated as group III, fermented glucose and showed depressed activity with other sugars. Curran, Rogers and Whittier (1933) separated aciduric strains by correlating colony form, effect of temperature on growth, type of lactic acid produced and fermentation reaction. Kopeloff and Kopeloff (1937) observed that R variants of L. acidophilus produced inactive lactic acid while the S type produced d lactic acid. R variants of Lactobacillus bulgaricus developed both d lactic and inactive lactive acid.The present study demonstrates a correlation of colony type and fermentative reaction of Lactobacillus plantarum. A marked depression of carbohydrate activity along with a definite enhancement of non-saccharolytic properties is noted in the dissociation of S to R.
ORIGIN OF CULTUREThe lactobacillus used in this study was originally isolated as the S type from olive brine (Tracy, 1934). During the several 467
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