Abstract
ALLEN1 reported that the majority of sporebearing anaerobes isolated in pure culture from anaerobic and aerobic flax-rets in England, and which appeared usually to be the active agents in retting, possessed the characteristics of Clostridium tertium. Dowson2 found that Bacillus polymyxa, a facultative sporulating organism, was capable of causing a soft rot of potato. This organism is capable of attacking pectin and therefore has potential retting abilities. B. amylobacter Bredemann, which is a synonym of Cl. butyricum and wrongly includes more than one true specific group3, is mentioned in the literature as a retting organism4. So far as I am aware, no other strict anaerobe, facultative anaerobe or micro–aerophilic organism has been reported in England as a possible retting agent.
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References
Allen, L. A., Nature, 157, 829 (1946).
Dowson, W. J., Nature, 152, 331 (1943).
Hellinger, E., Bull. Res. Counc. Israel, 2 (1952).
Galloway, L. D., and Burgess, R., “Applied Mycology and Bacteriology”, 127 (Leonard Hill, London, 2nd edit., 1940). The Flax Development Committee, Sixth Interim Report, 1945, p. 76.
Lanigan, G. W., Nature, 165, 516 (1950).
Weizmann, Ch., and Hellinger, E., J. Bact., 40, 665 (1940).
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HELLINGER, E. Sporulating Anaerobes on English Flax. Nature 171, 1119 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/1711119a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1711119a0
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