STUDIES ON CYTOPHAGAS 623

meniewska's discovery that cellophane could be used as a sub- strate, but

even on this medium, observation of the organisms in
thelivingstateisnoteasy,duetothefinenessofthecels.
THE DISCOVERY OF TWO NEW CYTOPHAGAS
The above-mentioned dificulties do not exist in the case of
somemorphologicallycloselyrelatedbacteriawhichare,however,
physiologicallylesspecialized. Theywereencounteredduring
thecourseofaninvestigationonmarineagar-decomposingbac-
teria,andwereeasilyobtainedinpureculture. Twospecies have been
differentiated: Cytophaga krzemieniewskii, n. sp., and
Cytophagadifluerun.sp. Sincetheprimarypurposeofthis
paperistodrawattentiontothemorphologyandtypeofmotility
oftheseforms,onlytheirsalientphysiologicalandculturalchar-
acteristicswilbementionedhere. Completedescriptionswil be published later.
Both are strictly aerobic and grow well on a wide variety of media.
Peptoneandyeastextractaretheonlysuitablenitrogen sources found, the
organisms being unable to grow with inor- ganic nitrogen salts or any of a
number of amino-acids in the
presenceofasuitablesourceofcarbonandenergy. Agar,celu-
lose,andsomesimplercarbohydrates,aredecomposed,butstarch
andchitinarenotattacked. Bothstrainsliquefygelatinand
reducenitrates,butdonotproduceindoleorH2S. Bothare weakly catalase-
positive. Growth on solid media is charac- teristicaly rapidly spreading;
isolated colonies can never be
obtained,thewholeplatebeingcoveredwithathinlayerofor-
ganismsin2to3days. Cytophagadifluensproducesasalmon pink pigment
which slowly becomes orange on most media;
Cytophaga krzemieniewskii produces a very pale pink pigment
whichislatermaskedbytheproductionofabrownorblackpig- ment.
The remarkable morphology of these organisms attracted at-
tentionfromtheirfirstisolation. Botharelarge,gram-negative, non-
sporeforming rods, occurring always in a variety of forms;
1 Named after Mme. H. Krzemieniewska, whose work on the soil
cytophagas firstindicatedtheirtruesystematicposition.
Downloaded from https://journals.asm.org/journal/jb on 03 October 2021 by
203.177.190.195.
624 R. Y. STANIER
straight, arcuate, U-shaped, S-shaped, and even sometimes
loopedaroundintoafulcircle.
Inyoungcultures,thecelsofC.difluenare4to10u long with an average of about
7 u, and 0.5 to 1.0 M wide at the cen- ter.
Whenexaminedinthelivingstate,theendsareslightly
pointedandthewholecelappearsspindle-shaped,butinstained preparations
these characters tend to disappear. As cultures become older the
morphology changes; long threads twisted into bizarre shapes and often
attaining a length of 20 to 30 Ma occur. Star-
shapedaggregatesofcelsareoftenformedinliquid
media;thisappearstobeaprocesssimilartothe"Sternbildung" described by
Stapp and Bortels for C. globulo8a. No
evidenceoftheproductionofsporesorotherrestingstageshas been found.
ThecelsofC.krzemieniewskiiinyoungculturesaresomewhat
largerthanthoseofC.difluens;thelengthvariesfrom5to20Mu with an average
of about 12 1A,and the width from 0.5 to 1.5 g. Markedly spindle-shaped,
pointed cels are rare; even in un- stainedpreparationsthemajorityareofmore
orleseventhick- nesswithslightlyroundedends. Star-shapedaggregatesare
commonlyproducedinliquidmedia. Inolderculturesthecels become swollen
and refractile, but thread forms are never seen.
Sporesorotherrestingstageshaveneverbeenfound.
Itisclearfromtheaboveaccountofthemorphologyofthese two forms that they
do not belong to any of the more common groupsofrod-shapedbacteria.
Theonlyknownsimplerod- shaped bacteria which display these
characteristics of extreme flexibility and spindle-shaped pointed cels are
the cytophagas. Consequently, we were led to consider these two forms as
repre- sentativesofthisgenusinspiteofthefactthatphysiologically
theydiferfromthepreviouslyknown species.

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