A Rapid Colony Test for Thiaminase Activity

Abstract

A rapid method for the detection of very small amounts of thiaminase activity produced by bacterial colonies is described. It can be used routinely in screening for thiaminase‐producing bacteria and other colony‐forming micro‐organisms and offers considerable advantages over other methods.

Thiaminase activity of gastrointestinal contents of salmon and herring from the Baltic Sea

“…The efficiency of different co-substrates seems to vary with the source of thiaminase I. In the present study pyridine was chosen, as it is a potent co-substrate for most thiaminases I (Edwin et al, 1978;Chick et al, 1989). The ATA in Baltic salmon GI contents correlated well with the amount of enzyme present, as measured by the PTA in the stomach, pylorus region and the first half of the small intestine.…”

Thiaminase Activity Amongst Strains of Clostridium sporogenes

“…One of the micro-organisms mentioned has been Cl. sporogenes (Kimura & Liao 1953,1964Hayashi et al 1973;Shreeve & Edwin 1974;Edwin et al 1978) which has been reported as a regular producer of thiaminase.…”

“…sporogenes as a regular producer of thiaminase I might have used strains of types I and 111; they might have missed strains of type I1 in their attempts to isolate the species. Except for the occasional strains with weak thiaminase activity, the new core sampling technique of Edwin et al (1978) will fail to detect strains I1 of Cl. sporogenes.…”

“…sporogenes and found that all were thiaminase producers. Edwin et al (1978) used their new core sample technique and showed that the two strains of CI. sporogenes they tested were copious producers of thiaminase I enzyme.…”