BACTERIA DECOMPOSING CELLULOSES 199 



These organisms are widely distributed in the soil. When kept under 

 laboratory conditions, for any length of time, especially on nutrient 

 agar media, they undergo marked physiological changes which may 

 include loss of cellulose-decomposing power. Transfers made from the 

 clear zone around the colony of the cellulose-decomposing bacterium 

 growing on the plate decomposed cellulose readily; when the culture 

 was transferred upon nutrient agar, the organism lost its cellulose- 

 decomposing power. Lohnis and Lochhead 18 suggested that the thread- 

 like organism, described above, plays a prominent role in the aerobic 

 decomposition of cellulose and is accompanied by numerous other 

 cellulose-decomposing bacteria of lower efficiency. This led Omeli- 

 ansky 19 and Pringsheim 20 to suggest that the organisms isolated by 

 Kellerman, McBeth and Scales were not in themselves cellulose decom- 

 posing forms but were present as contaminations. When isolations were 

 attempted on the agar plate, it was these contaminations that were 

 isolated, while the true cellulose decomposing forms were lost. 



In general, a large number of aerobic bacteria capable of decomposing 

 cellulose have been isolated from the soil, but the identity of many of 

 them is doubtful. 21 - 24 - 26 



Gray and Chalmers 25 isolated from the soil an aerobic organism capable of 

 decomposing cellulose and liquefying agar {Microspira agar-liquefaciens); this 



18 Lohnis and Lochhead, 1923 (p. 196). 



19 Omeliansky, 1913 (p. 191). 



20 Pringsheim, H., and Lichtenstein, S. Zur vermeintlichen Reinkultur der 

 Zellulosebakterien. Centrbl. Bakt. II, 60: 309-311. 1923. 



21 Sack, J. Zellulose-angreifende Bakterien. Centrbl. Bakt. II, 62:77-80. 

 1924. 



22 Epstein, A. Un nouvel agent destructeur des polysaccharides complexes, 

 Pseudomonas jwlysaccharidarum n. sp. Bull. Soc. Bot. Geneve (2), 11: 191-198. 

 1920. 



23 Distaso, A. Sur un microbe qui desagrege la cellulose (Bacillus cellulosae 

 desagregans n. sp.). Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol. 70: 995-996. 1911. 



24 Hopfe, A. Bakteriologische Untersuchungen liber die Celluloseverdauung. 

 Centrbl. Bakt. I, 83: 374-386. 1919. 



25 Gray, P. H. H., and Chalmers, C. H. On the stimulating action of certain 

 organic compounds on cellulose decomposition by means of a new aerobic micro- 

 organism that attacks both cellulose and agar. Ann. Appl. Biol. 11: 324-338. 

 1924. 



26 Gescher, N. tlber cellulosezersetzende Bakterien. Faserforschung, 2: 

 28-40. 1922. 



