The effect of silicon on growth and respiration in Chilomonas paramecium

✍ Scribed by Mast, S. O. ;Pace, D. M.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1937
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 608 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030100102

✦ Synopsis

S. 0. M A S T AND D. Rf. PACE assert that "addition of a small amount of II,SiO, notablT augments the yield of cultures of Bacille tuberculeux." Pace ('32) found that the rate of growth in Amoeba proteus increases greatly if sodium silicate is added to the cultures, and Mast and Pace ('33) found the same in observations on Chilomonas paramecium and they also found that this organism will not grow at all in inorganic solutions unless silicon is present.

It was held by early investigators that silicon in plants serves to make the stems more rigid, but Sachs (1862) and others found that the stems of plants grown in solutions without silicon are as rigid as those of plants grown in solutions with silicon. Mast and Pace ( '33) conclude that silicon acts as a catalyst in the synthesis of organic compounds from inorganic compounds.