A Study of Oxygen Absorption and Catalase Production During Growth of Chaetomium Globosum on Cotton Fiber and Yarn.

Damage to cotton by micro-organisms causes a serious loss to the cotton farmer, manufacturer, and consumer. For this reason studies are in progress in the Department of Agriculture on the growth and effect of various micro-organisms which cause deterioration of cotton. In an earlier investigation in this laboratory by Rogers, Wheeler, and Humfeld (1940) the growth of Chaetomium globosum Kunze on cotton duck was followed by measuring the evolution of carbon dioxide by absorption in potassium hydroxide and subsequent titration. The present paper discusses the rate of absorption of oxygen by C. globosum growing on cotton fiber and on cotton yarn as measured by means of the Warburg apparatus (1934). This apparatus, which was developed for studying the respiration of tumor growths and used for measuring the rate of respiration of micro-organisms, has not been employed previously for measuring the rate of growth of fungi or other orgamsms on a cotton substrate. The enzyme, catalase, is produced by the chaetomium during its growth. The amount of catalase formed may be considered a measure of the growth of the fungus. In this paper the quantity of catalase produced by the organism on the cotton fiber and cotton yarn is also reported.