A new levan producing bacterium, Corynebacterium laev aniformans nov spec

Raw sewage and activated sludge have been shown to be good sources for isolating a levan-synthesising bacterium. The morphological, cultural and physiological characteristics of the bacterium have been described and the designation. Corynebacterium laevaniformans, nov. spec. has been proposed for it. Some of the factors which influence levan synthesis are reported.

Nutritional properties ofCorynebacterium laevaniformans

The nutritional profiles ofCorynebacterium laevaniformans and the other levan synthesizing coryneform organism isolated by Henis and Aschner (1954) have been studied.C. laevaniformans required biotin, thiamine and pantothenic acid for growth while the Henis and Aschner strain required the former two vitamins only. Two of the six strains ofC. laevaniformans had, in addition, a requirement for glutamate.C. laevaniformans has been shown to be able to degrade levan in growing cultures. Some properties of a cell-free levansucrase are described.