The training of bacteria to new carbon sources. Bact. lactis aerogenes and d-arabinose

Abstract

Bacterium lactis aerogenes utilizes d-arabinose only after a lag of several days. However, when growth once occurs, the cells are adapted and the subsequent lags are normal. When the organism is grown in a mixture of d-arabinose and another sugar, the organism does not become adapted to the d-arabinose. It was demonstrated that cultures obtained from single colonies did not show much difference in their response to d-arabinose. The results are discussed in relation to the problem of the nature of variants, and also in relation to some general aspects of the kinetics of cell reac-tions.