Sporulation Media for Clostridium perfringens (I)

Abstract

On 22 strains Clostridium perfringens (Hobbs' standard 13 strains, Type A 8 strains, Type B one strain), which had poor or no sporulation in Ellner's medium, the influence of the composition of media for sporulation has been investigated. Partially modified Ellner's media, prepared by decrement of phosphate concentration, addition of ammonium acetate and sodium ascorbate, replacement of starch with glycerol and addition of cobalt ions (Table 1), were tested for sporulation of the organisms. The results obtained from experiments are as follows:1) For some test strains, the addition of higher concentration of phosphate acted inhibitive to the sporulation (Table 2), while the addition of both ammonium acetate and sodium ascorbate was effective to it (Tables 2 and 3).2) The sporulation was remarkably improved by the replacement starch with glycerol (Table 4). For all test strains including strains to which ammonium acetate and sodium ascorbate were not effective, the large yield of spores was regularly obtained by use of AGA medium shown in Table 1. The addition of cobalt ions to the medium brought about the rapid sporulation for some test strains (Table 5).