Characterization of Clostridium perfringens (welchii) Isolated from Market Poultry

Strains of Clostridium perfringens capable of producing heat-resistant spores, characteristic of the food-poisoning types, were not recovered in a random survey of feces and livers of market poultry. Favorable growth response with a known food-poisoning strain indicated that the media and methods employed were adequate. Spores produced in vitro from this strain survived at 100 C for several hours. Animal feeding experiments with this strain showed that heat-resistant spores (surviving for 1 hr at 100 C) could be readily demonstrated 24 hr after oral instillation of vegetative cells in mouse feces, but not in chicken feces. One experiment suggests that this strain might adapt to the environment of the intestinal tract of chickens, but not all of the spores recovered were as heat resistant as those of the parent culture.     

THE EFFECT OF THE INTERACTION OF TEMPERATURE WITH AFTER-RIPENING REQUIREMENT AND COMPENSATING TEMPERATURE ON GERMINATION OF SEED OF FIVE SPECIES OF ROSA

Seeds of 5 rose species, Rosa multiflora Thunb. ‘Cathayensis,’ R. × reversa Waldst. & Kit., R. setigera Michx. ‘Beltsville,’ R. setigera Michx. ‘Serena,’ and R. wichuraiana Crepin, varied in after-ripening requirement from 30 days at 4.4 C for R. multiflora to 90 days for R. setigera ‘Serena.’ The compensating temperature varied from near 12.8 C for R. × reversa to a value near 29.4 C for R. setigera ‘Beltsville.’ In this report compensating temperature is used to describe that temperature at which mature, moist seed does not germinate, after-ripening does not take place, and dormancy does not change. Seed germination was reduced by interruption of the after-ripening period with intervals at temperatures above the compensating temperature. The interruptions were more effective in reducing germination when more frequent and when the temperature during the interval was higher. Species differed in their sensitivity to high-temperature reduction of germination. Those having the longest after-ripening requirement were most sensitive. Germination of seeds which had the minimum after-ripening treatment was repressed more by high temperature than germination of those seeds which had an excess of after-ripening. The decrease in germination resulted from imposition of a secondary dormancy of the embryo, and probably also from reversal of the after-ripening effect upon the primary dormancy imposed by the seed coat.     

Enhanced resistance of anaerobic rumen fungi to the ionophores monensin and lasalocid in the presence of methanogenic bacteria

The presence of Methanobrevibacter smithii altered the susceptibility of the anaerobic fungi Neocallimastix frontalis and Piromonas communis to the carboxylic ionophores monensin and lasalocid. The ionophores depressed growth (measured by chitin accretion), the uptake of glucose and the production of H2, formate and acetate by the fungi growing axenically in semi-solid medium. In the presence of M. smithii , the sensitivity of the fungi to monensin and lasalocid was decreased. For example, the uptake of glucose by N. frontalis strain RE1 in the culture was reduced to 50% of the control value by monensin at 0.5 mUg/ml. In the presence of M. smithii strain PS, approximately three tunes as much monensin was needed to bring about the same effect. In similar tests, the sensitivity of strain RE1 to lasalocid was decreased about nine-fold in the presence of M. smithii. The effect was not observed if the methanogens were killed by autoclaving before inoculation. It is suggested that the enhanced resistance to ionophores in the presence of M. smithii is a consequence of changes in the energy metabolism of the fungi growing in co-culture.