The sensitivity of the respiration of luminous bacteria for 2, 4-dinitrophenol

✍ Scribed by Shoup, Charles S. ;Kimler, Alexander

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1934
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 373 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030050213

✦ Synopsis

Since the revival of interest in the biological action of 2, 4-dinitrophenol through the work of Cutting and Tainter ( '32) and their associates, considerable information has been made available regarding the action of the drug on the animal as a whole. Comparatively few studies have been made on the action of 2, 4-dinitrophenol on unicellular organisms, although it has been pointed out that the substance in minute amounts will directly affect tissue cells, (Ehrenfest and Ronzoni, '33) and stimulate oxidative metabolism. The possibility that 2, 4-dinitrophenol might show marked action on cells of high oxygen-consuming ability, led 11s to attempt experiments with a marine luminous bacterium, Achromobacter fischeri, isolated at Woods Hole, Massachusetts during the summer of 1933.

From the recent papers of Field, Martin and Field ('33 and '34) on experiments with yeast, and of Plantefol ('32) on plant cells, it has become evident that small amounts of the drug may exert profound effects within a limited range of extreme dilution, and that the action of 2, 4-dinitrophenol may be influenced by pH. These experiments on the effect of 2, 4-dinitrophenol on luminous bacteria, and unpublished work by Mr. F. H. Johnson ('34) in this laboratory, tend to

In considerable biological literature the drug is referred t o as alpha-dini- trophenol, ' but exact organic chemical terminology demands the above expression of 2, 4-dinitrophenol. 269