The effect of various incubation temperatures on the ribonucleic acid production of a mesophilic and thermophilic bacterium.

This investigation constitutes a comparative study of the ribonucleic acid production during the course of growth at different temperatures of an obligate thermophile and a mesophile. A study of this nature aside from the quantitative data should provide information concerning the rate of ribonucleic acid production, the characteristic ribonucleic acid patterns obtained during the course of growth, and possibly furnish some indication of the rate of protein synthesis. Concerning this last item, Caldwell and Hinshelwood (1950), Price (1952), Gale (1954), and others have observed that a relationship exists between ribonucleic acid and the synthesis of protein in bacteria.