ON THE BACTERIA RESPONSIBLE FOR SOFT ROT IN STORED POTATOES, AND THE REACTION OF THE TUBER TO INVASION BY BACTERIUM CAROTOVORUM (JONES) LEHMANN & NEUMANN

Bacterium carotovorum (Jones) Lehmann & Neumann and Pseudomonas syringae van Hall were the only two species of Gram-negative bacteria isolated from rotting potatoes collected from clamps in England in 1945-7. Both were found capable of producing a rot under known conditions, and both were isolated on plates of a pectate-gel medium which is liquefied by these bacteria. Ps. syringae has not been recorded before as causing a rot of stored potatoes. In a slightly different type of rot which was ropy or gassy and often pink in colour, Gram-positive spore-forming bacilli were found, generally associated with Bacterium carotovorum. These bacilli proved to be anaerobes–species of Clostridium –one of which, when inoculated together with Bacterium carotovorum, produced a gassy rot pink in colour.
On infection by Bad. carotovorum the tuber reacts to form a barrier of suberized cells, the extent and efficiency of which depend on temperature and relative humidity. Low temperatures and a low humidity favour the formation of the barrier and eventually of periderm; high temperatures favour the multiplication of the bacteria the advance of which is limited by humidities not reaching saturation. Fluctuations of temperature or humidity may promote a succession of barriers.     

Adaptation of the Photosynthetic Apparatus of Scenedesmus obliquus to Strong and Weak Light Conditions

Homocontinuous cultures of the unicellular green alga Scenedesmus obliquus were grown under strong (28 W/m²～28,000 lux) and weak (5 W/m²～5000 lux) light conditions to simulate the conditions of ‘sun’ and ‘shade’ plants. As in higher plants the cells adapted to strong light had less chlorophyll but demonstrated a higher photosynthetic capacity and a higher respiration rate, so that their compensation point was reached at three times higher energy than in the cells grown under low light intensities. The CO₂ fixation rate and the RuDP carboxylase activity under saturating light intensities were both higher in the cells grown in strong light. In spite of the differences in the pigment content and in the light saturated photosynthetic capacities for both cultures, the quantum yields of photosynthetic oxygen evolution were equal. As documented for some species of higher plants Scenedesmus is not genetically determined to be either a ‘sun’ or ‘shade’ organism but can adapt its photosynthetic apparatus to the different light intensities.