Abstract
VARIOUS alterations in the morphology and in physiological characters of certain bacteria have been obtained by many observers. Thus Bacillus coli, the plague bacillus, and other organisms show considerable variation in the size of the cells on different culture media; the Bacillus prodigiosus, which forms a brilliant red pigment when grown at ordinary temperatures, completely loses the power of pigment production after cultivation at blood heat, at which temperature (98° F.) it grows as luxuriantly as at 65° F. Twort and Penfold have “educated” the typhoid bacillus to ferment sugars which ordinarily it does not attack, and Revis has obtained marked varieties of Bacillus coli, morphological and physiological, by prolonged culture in various media. Minchin holds that if there be no syngamy (sexual reproduction, e.g. conjugation) among bacteria, as seems to be the case, the so-called species of bacteria are to be regarded as mere races or strains, capable of modification in any direction.
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HEWLETT, R. Mutations of Bacteria . Nature 93, 193–194 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/093193a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/093193a0