The Isolation and Description of two Marine Micro-organisms with Special Reference to their Pigment Production
SUMMARY: Two corynefonn organisms (A 1082 and A 1062) isolated from the skin mucus of Arctic cod, are described in detail. Strain A1032 may be a new species; strain A 1062 is a strain of Corynebacterium erythrogenes. Three carotenoid pigments, all with very similar absorption spectra, were found in...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.545.2067 http://mic.sgmjournals.org/content/11/3/438.full.pdf |
| Summary: | SUMMARY: Two corynefonn organisms (A 1082 and A 1062) isolated from the skin mucus of Arctic cod, are described in detail. Strain A1032 may be a new species; strain A 1062 is a strain of Corynebacterium erythrogenes. Three carotenoid pigments, all with very similar absorption spectra, were found in both strains. Two of these pigments were identified as neoxanthin and sarcina-xanthin. "he third pigment has not been described previously and has been named corynexanthin; it is characterized by an extremely high adsorptive power. The three pigments occur in different relative amounts in the two strains. Diphenylamine has no qualitative effect on the pigments produced, but does tend slightly to inhibit the amount produced. Strain A1062 on certain media (notably blood agar base, Oxoid), produces large amounts of coproporphyrin I11 and smaller amounts of pentacarboxy-, tricarboxy-, and dicarboxy-porphyrins. Strain A 1032 does not produce porphyrins. Most bacteria isolated from the skin slime of various marine teleost fish are Gram-negative rods (Shewan, 1949). Organisms of the genus Corynebacteriurn, however, form an important part of the flora of shark which inhabit Australian waters (Wood, 1950), and they have also been identified in the bacterial flora of cod (Gadw rnorrhuae, L.) caught off Bear Island (Shewan & Hodgkiss, 1951). According to Jensen (1952) these corynebacteria should be placed in his section Corynebacterium sensu lato. The first part of this paper contains a detailed description of two such strongly chromogenic coryneform organisms isolated during a survey of the normal bacterial flora of Arctic cod undertaken with a view to identifying organisms concerned in the spoilage of fish (Shewan & Hodgkiss, unpublished observations). The second section describes the pigments elaborated by these bacteria. A characteristic of marine bacteria is that a large proportion of them are |
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