210 



ORDER I. PSEUDOMONADALES 



Source: Isolated from salted hides which 

 were presumably salted with solar salt. 

 Habitat: Sea water and solar salt. 



3. Halobacterium halobium (Petter, 

 1931) Elazari-Volcaui, 1940. (Microbe du 

 rouge de morue, Le Dantec, Ann. Inst. 

 Past., 5, 1891, 656; also see Le Dantec, 

 Compt. rend. Soc. Biol., Paris, 61, 1906, 136; 

 Bacillus halobius ruber Klebahn, Mitteil. 

 a. d. Inst. f. allg. Bot. i. Hamburg, 4, 1919, 

 47; abst. in Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 52, 1921, 

 123; Bacterium halobium Petter, Proc. Kon. 

 Acad. V. Wetensch. Amsterdam, 34, 1931, 

 1417; also see Petter, Over roode en andere 

 bacterien van gezouten visch. Thesis, 

 Utrecht, 1932; Flavobacterium {Halobac- 

 terium) halobium Elazari-Volcani, Studies on 

 the Microflora of the Dead Sea. Thesis, 

 Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem, 1940, V and 59.) 



ha.lo'bi.um. Gr. noun hals salt; Gr. noun 

 bius life; M.L. adj. halobius living on salt. 



Rods, the length of which varies greatly 

 with the medium and age of culture: 0.6 to 

 0.9 by 2.0 to 6.0 microns in young cultures 

 grown on agar (30 per cent NaCl + 1 per 

 cent peptone "Poulenc"); 2.0 to 27.0 mi- 

 crons long in liquid peptone media, occur- 

 ring singly. (Klebahn described rods up to 

 45 microns in liquid media; in old cultures 

 (horse-serum agar), irregular involution 

 forms appear which are round, ovoid or 

 coccus-like, 1.0 to 1.5 by 1.7 to 2.7 microns.) 

 Cells from opaque colonies contain charac- 

 teristic gas vacuoles. The cells are very sen- 

 sitive to changes in salt concentration; be- 

 low 12 per cent NaCl and in w^ater, they 

 swell and form ovoid, amoeboid and club-, 

 spindle-, drumstick- and pear-shaped arte- 

 facts. Because of these irregular forms, the 

 organism was described by several investi- 

 gators as polymorphic (Cloake, Dept. of 

 Scientific and Ind. Research, Food Investi- 

 gation Board No. 18, London, 1923). Slightly 

 motile with a pendulum-like movement; 

 flagella observed with electron microscope 

 (Houwink, Jour. Gen. Microlnol., 15, 1956, 

 146). Gram-negative. 



Agar colonies (30 per cent NaCl -f 1 per 

 cent peptone "Poulenc"): Circular, trans- 

 parent or opaque; color varies from almost 

 white to orange, red, violet and purple; the 

 color of the colonj^ also changes during the 

 course of growth. 



Broth (30 per cent NaCl + 1 per cent pep- 

 tone "Poulenc"): Pellicle; turbid; colored 

 sediment. 



Asparagine broth (30 per cent NaCl -|- 3 

 per cent asparagine) : No growth. 



Indole not produced. 



No acid from glucose, sucrose or maltose 

 (tests made in 30 per cent salt + 1 per cent 

 peptone -|- 2 per cent carbohydrate). 



Nitrites produced from nitrates; no gas is 

 produced. 



Catalase-positive. 



Aerobic. 



Optimum temperature, 37° C. 



Salt tolerance: Halophilic, obligate; 

 grows above 12 per cent NaCl up to satura- 

 tion. 



Distinctive character: The pigment is 

 soluble in methanol, ethanol, acetone, 

 chloroform, carbon disulfide, benzol, petro- 

 leum ether, toluene and xylene. The carot- 

 enoids are named bacterio-ruberine a and /3. 



Source: Seven different strains were iso- 

 lated from reddened, salted codfish and her- 

 ring. 



Habitat: Produces a red discoloration on 

 salted herring and codfish. 



4. Halobacterium marismortui Ela- 

 zari-Volcani, 1940. (Flavobacterium {Halo- 

 bacterium) maris-mortui (sic) Elazari-Vol- 

 cani, Studies on the Microflora of the Dead 

 Sea. Thesis, Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem, 1940, 

 V and 48.) 



ma.ris.mor'tu.i. L. noun mare the sea; 

 L. gen. noun maris of the sea; L. adj. mortuus 

 dead; M.L. gen. noun marismortui of the 

 Dead Sea. 



Rods, the length and shape varj'ing 

 greatly with the medium : in Dead Sea water 

 -f 1 per cent proteose peptone, the cells 

 occur singly and measure 0.5 by 1.6 to 3.0 

 microns; in 24 per cent salt + 1 per cent 

 peptone and on agar + peptone + salt and 

 on Dead Sea water + peptone + agar, the 

 cells are spheroids which measure 1.0 to 

 1.5 microns in diameter. Non-motile. When 

 stained, the rods burst while the spheroids 

 retain their shape. Gram-negative. 



Gelatin stab (18 per cent salt + 1 per cent 

 peptone + 30 per cent gelatin) : Surface 

 growth. No liquefaction (2 months). 



Agar colonies (24 per cent salt + 1 per 



