Studies on the nutritional requirements of bacteria, III. Nitrogen requirements of dysentery bacilli in the synthetic medium.

The National Institute of Health of Japan, Tokyo (Received for publication, March 30, 1950) Evolutional steps of -nitrogen requirements of bacteria have been set up as follows. N2-N03-NH4-amino nitrogen-amino nitrogen+growth factor. Dysentery bacilli belong to the last step (3, 4, 6). As shown in the preceding report (5), Shigella dysenteriae (Shiga type) belongs to the transition zone between the last two steps. We wanted to determine the nitrogen requirements of dysentery bacilli as the mother group of Shigella dysenteriae (Shiga type) and the dispensability of nicotinic acid amide in this group. We now present the results obtained concerning standard 12 strains of dysentery bacilli of Japan.