Studies on Sarcina ventriculi. I. Stock culture method.

Study of Sarcina ventriculi (Zymosarcina ventriculi) has been encumbered by the absence of a satisfactory stock culture method. Smit (1930), as well as Milhaud et al. (1956) reported that transfers of the organism at 1or 2-day intervals were necessary to keep viable cultures. In this paper a method is described in which a viable stock culture may be maintained for a period of 2 months. A brief report of some of these findiings has appeared (Canale-Parola and Wolfe, 1959).