ENZYME ACTION IN THE MARINE ALGAE 
A: R. DAVIS 
Research Assistant to the Missouri Botanical Garden, 
Formerly Rufus J. Lackland Fellow in the Henry Shaw School of Botany of 
Washington University 
In a previous contribution from this laboratory! attention 
has been called to the difficulties experienced in demonstrating 
enzyme action in Fucus vesiculosus. Because of the negative 
results there obtained it was deemed worth while to extend 
the study to certain representative forms of the three great 
groups of marine algae, the ‘‘greens,’’ the ‘‘browns,’’ and 
the ‘‘reds’’; first, to ascertain whether this apparent inac- 
tivity were generally characteristic of the algae, and second, 
because of the light such an investigation might shed upon 
the general metabolism of the group. 
HIsTorIcaL 
Knowledge concerning enzyme activity and the distribution 
of enzymes in the algae is extremely meagre. The few papers 
that have found their way into the literature have been, for 
the most part, by-products of other studies and as such have 
dealt merely with isolated phases of the subject. From time 
to time, previous to actual demonstration, the presence of 
enzymes has been suggested by the work of various investi- 
gators. Arber (’01), attacking the problem of carbon as- 
similation in Ulva latissima,? found that the accumulation of 
starch in the tissue disappeared very slowly when the plant 
was subjected to darkness. This would suggest the presence 
of a diastase acting slowly. Spargo (718) observed that 
Chlamydomonas began growth more slowly when the medium 
contained sucrose as a source of carbon than when dextrose 
was supplied. She suggests that the sugar is probably assim- 
1 Duggar, B. M. and Davis, A. R. Enzyme action in Fucus vesiculosus. Ann. 
Mo. Bot. Gard. 1:419-426. 1914. 
?The binomials used throughout the historical review are those employ2d 
by the original investigators, no attempt being made to have them conform to 
any different existing nomenclature. 
ANN. Mo. Bort. GArD., VOL. 2, 1915 (771) 
