Abstract

CONTENT ALERTS Receive: RSS Feeds, eTOCs, free email alerts (when new articles cite this article), more» Information about commercial reprint orders: http://jb.asm.org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml To subscribe to to another ASM Journal go to: http://journals.asm.org/site/subscriptions/ JOURNAL OF BACTERIOLOGY, Mar., 1965 Copyright a 1965 American Society for Microbiology Vol. 89, No. 3 Printed in U.S.A. Method for Detecting and Isolating Proteolytic Marine Bacteria1 JOSEPH R. MERKEL Department of Chemistry and the Marine Science Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Received for publication 20 November 1964 Simith and Goodner (J. B3acteriol. 76:662, 1958) developed a primary-isolation technique based on the formation or solution of precipitates in gelatin-agar media within 24 hr after inoculation. The effects of salt concentration on zonal changes which these authors reported indicated that their method was applicable to marine bacteria. In my laboratory their media usually produced the desired results. However, clouding zones were occasionally difficult to detect among .Aonspecific precipitates, and the objection that gelatinase activity is not always a true measure of proteinase activity was not satisfied. A method for detection and primary isolation Af marine proteolytic bacteria was suggested from studies on the release and degradation of the chromoproteins (phycocyanin and allophycocyanin) of the red alga Porphyra