196 



ORDER I. PSEUDOMONADALES 



Johnson and Shiink (Jour. Bact., 31, 1936, 

 589). 



Short, thick rods, 0.4 to 0.8 by 1.0 to 2.5 

 microns, with rounded ends, occurring 

 singly and in pairs. Occasional rods slightly 

 curved, ends slightly pointed. Not encap- 

 sulated. Motile. Johnson, Zworykin and 

 Warren (Jour. Bact., 46, 1943, 167) made 

 pictures with the electron microscope of 

 a culture which they identified with this 

 species; the organism showed a tuft of polar 

 flagella. Gram-negative. 



Sea-water gelatin colonies : After 48 hours, 

 colonies small (less than 0.5 mm in diam- 

 eter), circular, entire, homogeneous, with 

 slight liquefaction. 



Sea-water gelatin stab: Slight, infundi- 

 buliform liquefaction, sometimes slightly 

 beaded, tending to become crateriform in 

 old cultures. 



Nutrient sea-water agar colonies: Small, 

 circular, smooth, entire, slightly raised, 

 homogeneous, iridescent. Old colonies be- 

 come yellowish with margins slightly ser- 

 rate. 



Sea-water agar slant: Growth abundant, 

 grayish to jellowish, smooth, viscous, 

 homogeneous, iridescent. 



Growth on autoclaved fish: Moderate, 

 grayish to yellowish, smooth, glistening, 

 luminescent, no odor of putrefaction. 



Sea water containing 0.2 per cent peptone : 

 Moderate growth, mostly near the surface; 

 very thin pellicle; sediment found in old 

 tubes. 



Milk: No growth. Milk with 2.8 per cent 

 sodium chloride : Slight growth and lumines- 

 cence, but no action on the milk. 



Potato plugs resting on cotton saturated 

 in sea water: Growth fairly abundant, 

 spreading, slightly brownish, luminous. 



Blood serum: No growth. 



Indole not produced. 



Hydrogen sulfide is produced. 



Acid but no gas from glucose (Gorham, 

 in Dahlgren, Jour. Franklin Inst., 180, 

 1915, 517 and insert following 714). Acid 

 from glycerol, fructose, galactose, mannose, 

 maltose, cellobiose, dextrin and salicin. 

 No acid or gas from lactose, sucrose, arabi- 

 nose, xylose, fucose, rhamnose, trehalose, 

 raffinose, glycogen, inulin, adonitol, dulci- 



tol, inositol, sorbitol, erythritol, arabitol 

 or alpha-methyl-glycoside. 



Starch hydrolysis is doubtful or verj' 

 slight. 



Decarboxjlates glutamic acid to form 

 7-aminobutyric acid and CO2 ; decarboxjd- 

 ates lysine (Pearson, Jour. Cell, and Comp. 

 Physiol., 41, 1953, 65). 



Alanine, arginine, aspartic acid, glutamic 

 acid and threonine are capable of serving 

 as sole nitrogen sources for this organism 

 (Pearson, Jour. Tenn. Acad. Sci., 27, 1952, 

 229). 



Nitrites produced from nitrates. 



Ammonia produced in peptone media. 



Aerobic, facultatively anaerobic. 



Temperature relations: Optimum, be- 

 tween 25° and 28° C. Minimum, between 5° 

 and 10° C. No growth at 37° C. 



Optimum temperature for luminescence, 

 28° C. Weak at 10° C., none at 5° nor at 37° C. 



Optimum pH for luminescence, between 

 7.4 and 7.8; less intense at 7.0 and 8.2. 

 Fischer (Erg. d. Plankton Expedition d. 

 Humboldt-Stiftung, 4, 1894) noted that 

 this organism grows best in alkaline rnedia. 



Quality of luminescence: Orangish, main- 

 tained for 5 to 8 weeks (Beijerinck); green- 

 ish (Johnson and Shunk). Luminescence 

 favored by the presence of glycerol in the 

 medium. 



Salt tolerance: The osmotic tension of 

 inorganic salt solutions used as media for 

 this species must be equivalent to that 

 produced in a 2.8 to 3.0 per cent sodium 

 chloride solution to assure luminescence and 

 good growth. 



Not pathogenic for white rats. 



Distinctive character: Luminescence on 

 organic matter occurs only when there is a 

 suflftcient proportion of inorganic salt pres- 

 ent. 



Source: Isolated from sea water at Kiel 

 and from herring. 



Habitat: Frequentlj^ found on dead fish, 

 Crustacea and other salt-water animals and 

 in coastal sea water. Phosphorescent bac- 

 teria also occur on meat and even on sol- 

 dier's wounds where they produce no known 

 harmful effects. No food poisoning has been 

 traced to meat on which these organisms 

 have grown (Niven, Circular No. 2, Ameri- 

 can Meat Inst. Foundation, 1951, 1-11). 



