Variability in the activity of bacterial enzymes

Abstract

MANY papers have appeared during the last few years dealing with the dehydro- genase reactions induced by suspensions of washed bacterial cells.Up to the present no attempt has been made to examine systematically the activities of these enzymes in relation to any variations that might result from growing the organism under different conditions.In the past it has been more or less assumed that when grown on one of the usual bacteriological nutrient media an organism will exhibit a characteristic range of enzymic behaviour, although instances have been cited in which differences in this behaviour appeared to develop.Thus Klotz [1906] showed that a non-lactose-fermenting organism, B. perturbans, if grown upon a solid medium containing lactose, produced colonies which developed lactose-fermenting papillae.When the organism was sub-cultured from the central non-lactose-fermenting colony the resulting