A number of marine bacteria have been found to have a specific requirement for sodium for growth and for metabolism. The specific function of this monovalent ion for the cells, however, is still unknown. The aim of this project is to study the function of sodium in a Gram-negative marine pseudomonad. Three different approaches were taken to investigate this problem. The first one consisted in comparing the biochemical properties of a Na+ requiring marine bacterium and some non-Na+ requiring mutants derived from it.

It has been proposed within recent years that the neurotoxin of Clostridium botulinum might exert its effect in the animal body by interfering with the synthesis or release of acetylcholine at myoneural junctions. The object of this study was to determine whether or not botulinum toxin inhibits the bacterial acetylation of choline. No effect upon the synthesis or release of acetylcholine by Lactobacillus plantarum was demonstrated. It may be that the large toxin molecule is unable to penetrate the cell membrane. The apparent activity of a bacterial cell-free "extract" of the enzyme involved in the acetylation of choline indicates however the advisability of further work.

Ordinary vinegar is dilute acetic acid obtained from the oxidation of alcoholic liquids, and it was probably in this form that it was known from the earliest times. Vinegar was mentioned in three books of the Old Testament and Hippocrates is reported to have prescribed it as a medicine for his patients. Livy, the Latin prose writer, reported in his book No. XXI that Hannibal overcame the difficulty offered to the passage of his army in crossing the rocks or the Alps by dissolving the rocks with vinegar so that a pathway could be made. Thus, vinegar was known for a long time.

In a paper published in 1883 Ogston had this to say of the "micrococci": "Yet when the animal (injected with "micrococci" taken from a suppurative infection) is subjected to microscopic scrutiny, we find that at the seemingly unimportant injection site an enormous and appalling growth of deadly organisms, in numbers that would be but faintly computed by millions, while the blood which we would naturally have supposed to be richly inhabited, is so poorly provided with the organism that it is clear that the chemical intoxication by the ptomaine, not the vital injection of the germ, has been the cause of death".

At present there is neither a general scheme nor are there even well defined criteria which may be followed in placing an organism within the genus corynebacterium. Morphological and physiological studies to date have not provided a satisfactory solution. The literature is indicative of extensive serological investigations but is, on the whole, concerned with the type species C. diphtheriae. [...]

Very little appears to be known about many physical and chemical factors that specifically affect the rate of fermentation of apple juice. Indeed, before the work by Clark et al. (1954) at the Bacteriology Department of Macdonald College, it appears that factors other than those tested by Barker (1908) bad not been studied. Barker studied the affect of seration, the temperature of incubation used, the kinds of yeast used, and dissolved nitrogenous matter on the rate of alcohol formation in apple juice. Clark et al. (1954) studied the effect of the age of inoculum, the concentration of yeast extract, and the presence of non-fermenting yeasts on the rate of alcohol production in apple juice.

The purpose of this investigation was to study the biological and immunological properties of purified preparations of Staphylococcus pyogenes Wood 46 alpha toxin. The toxin was fractionated by carboxymethyl cellulose column chromatography and purified by a zinc-ethanol precipitation technique and the materials tested for functional antigenicity in rabbits. An attempt was made to contribute to the question of unity and diversity of biological activities associated with the alpha haemolysin of Staphylococcus pyogenes using the technique of zone electrophoresis on starch-gel.

In 1947 a mould was found growing as a contaminant on a Lowenstein's slope which had been inoculated with sputum for the isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis which was found to produce, in addition to an antibiotic probably identical with penicillin, a substance capable of neutralizing various bacterial exotoxins. (Diena, 1954, 1956; Murray, Denton, Stevenson and Diena, 1958). The mould was identified as Penicillium cyaneo-fulvum and the toxin neutralizing substance was designated noxiversin. Noxiversin was shown to possess, in addition to its antitoxic properties, some activity against influenza virus (Diena, 1956).

Most strains or Escherichia coli have simple nutritional requirements. This fact indicates that these organisms are able to synthesize all their requirements tor amino acids, purines, pyrimidines, vitamins and other substances necessary for growth in a mixture or a few inorganic salts and glucose. Davis and Mingioli (8), however, have isolated mutant strains or E. coli that require either methionine or vitamin B12 tor growth.

The “yeast-like fungi” seem to be placed in a taxonomical “no man's land” between the interests of bacteriologists and mycologists. They may be isolated and studied by means of techniques that are essentially more bacteriological than mycological. Yet they appear to have been considered alien to the interests of bacteriologists and of little interest to the mycologists. Since yeast-like fungi are a group of microorganisms of varied morphology (328) it is difficult to present a precise botanical definition of them. Skinner (328) has stated that one is justified in calling an organism “yeast-like” if that organism produces yeast-like daughter cells from mycelium.