METABOLIC ASPECTS OF BACTERIAL GROWTH IN THE ABSENCE OF CELL DIVISION II

Abstract

The Mg-deficiency technic of Webb was employed to obtain crops of B. cereus in the form of long filaments. Detns. of culture turbidity and dry wt. of crops indicate that filamentous cells and normal cells achieved the same total growth in 16 hrs. of incubation. The total N content of filamentous cells per unit wt. was the same as that of normal cells. Rates of O2- consumption in the absence of added substrate were compared for normal and filamentous cells and found to be similar. Oxidations of glucose, pyruvate, alanine, and glutamate by filamentous cells proceeded at rates only 1/3 to 1/6 of those exhibited by cells with uninhibited division mechanisms. The fraction of the total respiration retained by growing nondividing (filamentous) cells is almost completely inhibited by iodoacetate and is sensitive to fluoride. Implications derived from this aspect of the study of the metabolism of bacteria grown in the absence of cell division are considered.