CHANGES IN THE AMINO ACIDS COMPOSITION OF CULTURE FLUID OF PASTCURELLA PESTIS EV STRAIN DURING THEIR GROWTH

Using two dimensional paper chromatography, the author studied the changes in the com-position of amino acids which occurred during the growth of Pasteurella pestis in Hottinger'sbroth. It was found that the various amino acid present originally in the medium were utilizedaccording to a definite sequence. Proline and serine were the amino acids to be utilized first. Thenthreonine was utilized, and lastly glutamic acid, aspartic acid, glycine and alanine. The utiliza-tion of glutamic acid begen only after proline, serine and threonine were all exhausted, and therewas no utilization of aspartic acid, glycine and alanine before glutamic acid was exhausted. It was found that uninoculated Hottinger's broth as well as centrifuged supernatant of culturefluids could be used directly without any treatment for either qualitative or quantitative analysisof amino acids by paper chromatography. It was suggested that this simplification of techniquemay also be applicable to the study of the metabolic activities of other bacteria.