The Physiological Bases for Microbial Barotolerance

摘要

Growth inhibition by narcotic gases is not a narcotic response but belongs to a new and different class of responses. The range of potencies of various types of anesthetic agents for microbial growth inhibition is not interpretable in terms of simple physio-chemical parameters such as lipid solubility. The growth inhibitory actions of anesthetic gases apply to both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, including mammalian tissue-culture cells. The ecological importance of hydrostatic pressure in the marine environment is much more extensive than previously considered - pressure can be a major ecological factor even in shallow water when otherwise nonoptimal growth conditions render organisms hypersensitive to pressure. Growth of microorganisms can be optimized with respect to pressure in the general way that one optimizes growth with respect to temperature and pH - 1 atm is not the optimal growth pressure for most bacteria when all environmental parameters are adjusted to give maximal growth. Pressure-induced germination of bacterial endospores is very much affected by the specific