Source: Isolated from salted hides which were presumably salted with solar salt. Habitat: Sea water and solar salt.
3. Halobacterium halobium (Petter, 1931) Elazari-Volcaui, 1940. (Microbe du rouge de morue, Le Dantec, Ann. Inst. Past., 5, 1891, 656; also see Le Dantec, Compt. rend. Soc. Biol., Paris, 61, 1906, 136; Bacillus halobius ruber Klebahn, Mitteil. a. d. Inst. f. allg. Bot. i. Hamburg, 4, 1919, 47; abst. in Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 52, 1921, 123; Bacterium halobium Petter, Proc. Kon. Acad. V. Wetensch. Amsterdam, 34, 1931, 1417; also see Petter, Over roode en andere bacterien van gezouten visch. Thesis, Utrecht, 1932; Flavobacterium {Halobac- terium) halobium Elazari-Volcani, Studies on the Microflora of the Dead Sea. Thesis, Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem, 1940, V and 59.) ha.lo'bi.um. Gr. noun hals salt; Gr. noun bius life; M.L. adj. halobius living on salt. Rods, the length of which varies greatly with the medium and age of culture: 0.6 to 0.9 by 2.0 to 6.0 microns in young cultures grown on agar (30 per cent NaCl + 1 per cent peptone "Poulenc"); 2.0 to 27.0 mi- crons long in liquid peptone media, occur- ring singly. (Klebahn described rods up to 45 microns in liquid media; in old cultures (horse-serum agar), irregular involution forms appear which are round, ovoid or coccus-like, 1.0 to 1.5 by 1.7 to 2.7 microns.) Cells from opaque colonies contain charac- teristic gas vacuoles. The cells are very sen- sitive to changes in salt concentration; be- low 12 per cent NaCl and in w^ater, they swell and form ovoid, amoeboid and club-, spindle-, drumstick- and pear-shaped arte- facts. Because of these irregular forms, the organism was described by several investi- gators as polymorphic (Cloake, Dept. of Scientific and Ind. Research, Food Investi- gation Board No. 18, London, 1923). Slightly motile with a pendulum-like movement; flagella observed with electron microscope (Houwink, Jour. Gen. Microlnol., 15, 1956, 146). Gram-negative. Agar colonies (30 per cent NaCl -f 1 per cent peptone "Poulenc"): Circular, trans- parent or opaque; color varies from almost white to orange, red, violet and purple; the color of the colonj^ also changes during the course of growth. Broth (30 per cent NaCl + 1 per cent pep- tone "Poulenc"): Pellicle; turbid; colored sediment. Asparagine broth (30 per cent NaCl -|- 3 per cent asparagine) : No growth. Indole not produced. No acid from glucose, sucrose or maltose (tests made in 30 per cent salt + 1 per cent peptone -|- 2 per cent carbohydrate). Nitrites produced from nitrates; no gas is produced. Catalase-positive. Aerobic. Optimum temperature, 37° C. Salt tolerance: Halophilic, obligate; grows above 12 per cent NaCl up to satura- tion. Distinctive character: The pigment is soluble in methanol, ethanol, acetone, chloroform, carbon disulfide, benzol, petro- leum ether, toluene and xylene. The carot- enoids are named bacterio-ruberine a and /3. Source: Seven different strains were iso- lated from reddened, salted codfish and her- ring. Habitat: Produces a red discoloration on salted herring and codfish.
4. Halobacterium marismortui Ela- zari-Volcani, 1940. (Flavobacterium {Halo- bacterium) maris-mortui (sic) Elazari-Vol- cani, Studies on the Microflora of the Dead Sea. Thesis, Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem, 1940, V and 48.) ma.ris.mor'tu.i. L. noun mare the sea; L. gen. noun maris of the sea; L. adj. mortuus dead; M.L. gen. noun marismortui of the Dead Sea. Rods, the length and shape varj'ing greatly with the medium : in Dead Sea water -f 1 per cent proteose peptone, the cells occur singly and measure 0.5 by 1.6 to 3.0 microns; in 24 per cent salt + 1 per cent peptone and on agar + peptone + salt and on Dead Sea water + peptone + agar, the cells are spheroids which measure 1.0 to 1.5 microns in diameter. Non-motile. When stained, the rods burst while the spheroids retain their shape. Gram-negative. Gelatin stab (18 per cent salt + 1 per cent peptone + 30 per cent gelatin) : Surface growth. No liquefaction (2 months). Agar colonies (24 per cent salt + 1 per
