THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOIL BACTERIA WITH SIMPLE NUTRITIONAL REQUIREMENTS AND THOSE REQUIRING AMINO ACIDS

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Abstract
Twenty-two of 30 representative soil bacteria having simple nutritional requirements, in that they showed maximum development in a medium of inorganic salts and sugar, were found to be able to synthesize a variety of amino acids, though in no single case were more than four ninhydrin-positive substances found. The culture filtrates permitted the growth of amino-acid-requiring bacteria to the extent that they contained the specific amino acid or acids required by strains of the latter group. The findings point to an associative action between these nutritional groups of soil organisms and suggest that the preferential stimulation in the rhizosphere of bacteria requiring amino acids may be ascribed in part to the ability of the other group of bacteria, which are numerically increased in the rhizosphere, to synthesize amino acids.