CRYSTAL VIOLET BINDING CAPACITY AND THE GRAM REACTION OF BACTERIAL CELLS

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Abstract
Colorimetric quantitative detns. of crystal violet uptake by bacterial cells failed to show any correlation with their gram-staining character. For the 8 microorganisms studied, the mg. crystal violet uptake per mg. cellular N were: Acetobacter pasteurianum 0.65; Escherichia coli 1.45; Serratia marcescens 1.56; Neisseria catarrhalis 1.90;Saccharomyces cerevisiae 0.80; Bacillus subtilis 0.81; Micrococcus pyogenes var. aureus 1.43; and Sarcina lutea 3.02. These results argue against the Stearn and Stearn concept of the mechanism of gram differentiation. The results presented by Kennedy and Barbaro showing a correlation between gram character and cellular dye content represent measurements of dye retention, rather than dye uptake.