Desoxyribosides and vitamin B12 as growth factors for lactic acid bacteria.

Rogosa, Tittsler, and Geib (1947) reported that many strains of Lactobacilluss bulgaricus, Lactobacillus lactis, Lactobacillus acidophtlus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii, and Lactobacillus leichmannii failed to grow in semisynthetic media similar to those used for vitamin assay with other lactic acid bacteria, even though all of the then known B vitamins were added. Since that time oleic acid (Williams, Broquist, and Snell, 1947; Hutchings and Boggiano, 1947), pyridoxamine phosphate (McNutt and Snell, 1948, 1950), and an unidentified substance provisionally termed "LBF" (Lactobacillus bulgaricus factor, Williams, Hoff-Jorgensen, and Snell, 1C49) have been shown to be essential for the growth of certain of these organisms. A series of preliminary reports (e.g., Shorb, 1948; Kitay, McNutt, and Snell, 1949; Kocher and Schindler, 1949; Hoff-Jorgensen, 1949) has also established that certain of these org require vitamin B12, desoxyribosides, or certain reducing agents for growth. This report represents part of an investigation to determine the hitherto unidentified growth factors required by the above-named organisms. It describes the specificity and variability of several lactic acid bacteria in their requirement for desoxyribosides, vitamin Bi2, or reducing agents, and gives the experimental conditions under which these were determined.