CHAPTER I 



SPOROBOLOMYCES, A BASIDIOMYCETOUS YEAST-GENUS 



Introduction — Cultures — Spore-deposits — Method of Observing the Development 

 and Discharge of the Spores — Observations on the Development of Sporo- 

 bolomyces Colonies — The Production and Violent Discharge of the Spores — 

 Abnormal Drop-excretion — The Successive Production of Spores on One and 

 the Same Sterigma — The Successive Production of Spores on Two or More 

 Sterigmata — Nuclear Phenomena — The Taxonomic Position of Sporobolomyces 



Introduction. — In 1924, Kluyver and van Niel 1 gave the name 

 Sporobolomyces to certain yeast species which have the peculiarity 

 of producing conidia at the surface of the culture medium and of 

 violently discharging them into the air ; and these authors described 

 the genus Sporobolomyces as follows : 



" Red or salmon-pink yeast-like organisms which multiply them- 

 selves by budding. The metabolism is altogether of an oxidative 

 kind, fermentation not taking place. A part of the cell produces 

 on well-formed aerial sterigmata typical kidney-shaped or sickle- 

 shaped spores which, when ripe, are discharged into the air by means 

 of a peculiar mechanism." 2 



Kluyver and van Niel placed three species of yeasts in Sporo- 

 bolomyces, namely, 8. salmonicolor, 8. roseus, and 8. tenuis ; and 

 they distinguished these species from one another by criteria con- 

 cerned with the size and shape of the yeast cells and conidia, colour, 

 appearance of the colonies in culture media, relations with car- 

 bonaceous and nitrogenous food-materials, etc. 



Previously to 1924, yeast species now included in Sporobolomyces 



1 A. J. Kluyver and C. B. van Niel, " Uber Spiegelbilder erzeugende Hefenarten 

 und die neue Hefengattung Sporobolomyces," Centralblatt fiir Bakteriologie, Para- 

 sitenkunde, und Infectionskrankheiten, Abt. 2, Bd. LXIII, 1924-25, pp. 1-20, Taf. I 

 and II. 



2 Ibid., p. 19. 



171 



