FAMILY PSEUDOMOXADACEAE 



181 



1. Acetobacter aceti (Kiitzing) Beijer- 

 inck. (Ulvina aceti Kiitzing, Algae 

 aquae dulcis etc., Uth decade, 1837; 

 Mycoderma aceti Thompson, Ann. d. 

 Chem. u. Pharmacie, 83, 1852, 89; Um- 

 bina aceti Naegeli, Bericht iiber die 

 Verhandlingen der bot. Section der 33 

 Versammlung deutscher Naturforscher 

 und Arzter. Bot. Ztg., 1857, 760; Bac- 

 terium aceti Lanzi, N. Giorn. bot. ital., 

 1876, 257; Torula aceti Saccardo, Atti 

 Soc. Ven. Trent., 5, 1878, 315; Bacteriop- 

 sis aceti Trevisan, Atti della Accademia 

 Fisio-Medico-Statistica in Milano, Ser. 

 4, 3, 1885, 103; Micrococcus aceti Maggi, 

 Jour. Microg., 10, 1886; Bacillus aceti 

 Schroeter, Kryptogamen Flora von Schle- 

 sien, 3, 1, 1886, 161; Bacillus aceticus 

 Fliigge, Die Mikroorganismen, 1886, 313; 

 Beijerinck, Krai's Sammlung v. Mikro- 

 org., Prague, 1898, 7; Beijerinck, Proc. 

 Kon. Akad. v. Wetensch., Amsterdam, 

 2, 1900, 495; Bacterium hansenianum 

 Chester, Man. Determ. Bact., 1901, 126.) 

 From Latin acetum, vinegar. 



Rods: 0.4 to 0.8 by 1.0 to 2.0 microns, 

 occurring singly and in long chains, fre- 

 quently showing large club-shaped forms. 

 Stain yellow with iodine solution. Mo- 

 tility variable. Motile cells possess a 

 single polar flagellum (Vaughn, Jour. 

 Bact., 46, 1943, 394). Forms large, 

 shiny colonies on beer gelatin containing 

 10 per cent sucrose. 



Forms slimy pellicle on fluid media, or 

 ring or turbidity without pellicle. 



Acid from glucose, ethyl alcohol, 

 propyl alcohol and glycol. No acid from 

 arabinose, fructose, galactose, sorbose, 

 sucrose, maltose, lactose, raffinose, dex- 

 trin, starch, glycogen, inulin, methyl 

 alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, butyl alcohol, 

 isobutyl alcohol, amyl alcohol, glycerol, 

 erythritol, mannitol, dulcitol and acetal- 

 dehyde (Henneberg, Die deutsch. Es- 

 sigind., B, 1898, 147). 

 Aerobic. 



Distinctive characters : Marked oxida- 

 tive power causing rapid and complete 

 oxidation of substrate as glucose or ethyl 

 alcohol; ability to utilize inorganic nitro- 



gen salts as a sole source of nitrogen 

 (Hoj^er, Inaug. Diss., Leiden, 1898, 43; 

 Beijerinck, Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 4, 

 1898, 215) ; growth and oxidative activity 

 in association with fermenting yeasts 

 (Vaughn, Jour. Bact., 36, 1938, 360). 



Optimum temperature 30°C. Growth 

 occurs between 10° and 42°C. 



Habitat: Vinegar; souring fruits, vege- 

 tables and beverages. 



2. Acetobacter xylinum (Brown) Hol- 

 land. (Bacterium xylinum Brown, Jour. 

 Chem. Soc, London, 49, 1886, 439; 

 Holland, Jour. Bact., 5, 1920, 216; Ba- 

 cillus xylinus Holland, ibid., 221.) 

 From Gr. xijlinus, wooden (in reference 

 to the cellulose in the membrane). 



Rods, about 2 microns long, occurring 

 singly and in chains. The cells have a 

 slimy envelope which gives the cellulose 

 reaction. 



A film forms on the surface of liquids. 

 This film becomes cartilagenous and falls 

 to the bottom. This zoogloeal film forms 

 on all liquid media in which growth 

 occurs; the nature of the medium influ- 

 ences the thickness of the film which may 

 vary from 1 to 250 millimeters. 



X-ray pattern studies made by Khou- 

 vine, Champetier and Sutra (Compt. 

 rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, 194, 1932, 208) 

 and by Barsha and Hibbert (Can. Jour. 

 Research, 10, 1934, 170) have shown that 

 the cellulose contained in the membranes 

 formed by Acetobacter xylinum is identi- 

 cal with cotton cellulose. 



Acid from glucose, ethyl alcohol, 

 propyl alcohol and glycol. No acid from 

 arabinose, fructose, galactose, maltose, 

 lactose, raffinose, dextrin, starch, methyl 

 alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, butyl alcohol, 

 isobutyl alcohol, amyl alcohol, manni- 

 tol and acetaldehyde (Henneberg, Die 

 deutsch. Essigind., 2, 1898, 147). 

 Aerobic. 



Distinctive character: The production 

 of thick, leathery, zoogloeal cellulosic 

 membranes on the surface of liquids. 

 Optimum temperature 28°C. 



