The addition of catalase to culture medium increased the period of viability of Beggiatoa from 1 week to 2 months. Addition of catalase also produced a marked increase in cell yield and enzyme activity. Cultures grown without catalase exhibited an absorption peak characteristic of peroxides. This absorption peak was removed by addition of catalase during or after growth. Oxygen was required for growth, but carbon dioxide was not produced. Malate and acetate stimulated growth at low concentrations. Glucose and thiosulfate were not oxidized, and cytochromes were not detectable by spectrophotometric analysis.

A proposed system which would permit acetate incorporation into four-carbon compounds without the presence of key enzymes of the citric acid cycle or glyoxylate cycle is described. In this system, acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) is condensed with glyoxylate to form malate, which, in turn, is converted to oxaloacetate. Oxaloacetate then reacts with glutamate to produce ax-ketoglutarate, which is subsequently converted to isocitrate. Cleavage of isocitrate produces glyoxylate and succinate. Thus, the proposed system is similar to the glyoxylate bypass in that malate is produced from glyoxylate and acetyl-CoA, but differs from both the citric acid cycle and the glyoxylate bypass, since citrate and fumarate are not involved. Fumarase, aconitase, catalase, citritase, pyruvate kinase, enolase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, lactic dehydrogenase, a-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, and condensing enzyme were not detectable in crude extracts of Beggiatoa. Succinate was oxidized by a soluble enzyme not associated with an electron-transport particle. Isocitrate was identified as the sole compound labeled when C1402 was added to a reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, CO2 generating system (crystalline glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glucose-6-phosphate) in the presence of a-ketoglutarate. ' Published as technical paper no. 1875, Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station. This paper was taken in part from a dissertation submitted by Sheril D. Burton in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree

Larvae of the mayfly (Drunella grandis [Eaton]) from Diamond Fork Creek, Utah, were covered with a heavy growth of the sulfide-oxidizing bacterium Thiothrix. The bacterium did not seem to harm the mayfly, but the Thiothrix trichomes were parasitized by three morphologically distinct bacteria, two of which were cytoplasmic and one of which was probably periplasmic. At least two of the parasites destroyed the cytoplasmic contents of the Thiothrix sp., thus killing the host cell. Attempts to obtain the parasites in pure culture were unsuccessful.

MORITA, RICHARD Y. (Oregon State University, Corvallis), AND SHERIL D. BURTON. Influence of moderate temperature on growth and malic dehydrogenase activity of a marine psychrophile. J. Bacteriol. 86:1025-1029. 1963.-The maximal and optimal growth temperatures for a marine psychrophilic vibrio (PS 207) were determined to be 30 and 24.5 C, respectively. Malic dehydrogenase was found to be functioning in whole cells at about JWo of its observed