Abstract
In 1924 H. Miura (1) isolated 2 strains of luminous bacteria from dead fish. He found that one strain decomposed glucose, maltose, dextrin, galactose, fructose, glycerol and mannitol and could not decompose sucrose, lactose and inuline, but the other strain decomposed only glucose, galactose, fructose and glycerol. In 1932 F. Fuhrmann (2) studied the influence of sugars on luminescence, and obtained the following results: Glucose, fructose and galactose did not increase materially the luminescence; and greater amounts of these hexoses produced acids and consequently inhibited luminescence. Cane sugar was without any material influence on M luminescence, while lactose in moderate amounts increased luminescence, but larger amounts inhibited it. In 1935 F. H. Johnson (3) studied the decomposition of carbohydrates, and polyhydric alcohol by luminous bacteria. He concluded that it was difficult to find any important correlations between the molecular configuration of the substrate and the ability of the organism to oxidize it, and only those compounds hawing 3 or 6 carbons were utilized. In 1942 M. Doudoroff (4) studied the anaerobic metabolism of facultatively anaerobic species of luminous bacteria. He observed that a few spesies of Photobacterium and Achromobacter harveyi decomposed glucose and produced chiefly formic acid, acetic acid, lactic acid, ethylalcohol, succinic acid and CO2, while Photobacterium phosphoreum produced hydrogen and occasionally 2, 3-butvlene glycol.
The author studied the influence of carbohydrates and polyhydrin alcohol, obtained in hard conditions of post-war time, on growth and luminescence of luminous bacterium “Jidai No. 23”.
