It has been known since the 19th century, that most luminous bacteria have their greatest luminescence in medium containing 2-3 per cent NaCl. But the relation between the luminescence and the concentration of NaCl was not systematically studied until 1932. In that year F. Fuhrmann (1) found that the optimum concentration of NaCl for both growth and luminescence was 0.3-0.4
N, and that of NaBr for growth was 0.5-0.6
N and for luminescence was 0.4-0.6
N, using
Photobacillus radians isolated from North Sea fish. In 1933 T. Kishitani (2) found that a luminous bacterium,
Pseudomonas phosphorescens, had its maximum growth in the medium containing 1 per cent NaCl, and the maximum light production per unit cell of the bacterium occurred in the medium containing 5 per cent NaCl, but the maximum, light production per unit volume of medium occurred in the medium containing 3 per cant NaCl. In 1939 M. Takase (3) precisely measured the luminescence intensity of bacterial suspension in various salt solutions. He found the maximum luminescence intensity per unit suspension occurred in 0.5
N NaCl solution, and the optimum concentration of NaBr was 0.5
N. He also observed that the action of chlorine ion was much greater than that of bromine ion at equivalent concentration of sodium salt.
The author determined the optimum concentration of NaCl and NaBr for growth and luminescence.
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