Relation of Bacteria to Vitamins and Other Growth Factors

Effects of probiotics and commensals on intestinal epithelial physiology: implications for nutrient handling

“…Vitamins were discovered during the first half of the 20th century, by analysing human and animal diet, and through the identification of 'growth factors' for bacterial isolation (Burkholder & McVeigh, 1942;Peterson & Peterson, 1945), but only in the last decades of the last century was the association between bacteria and vitamin synthesis made (Leviton & Hargrove, 1952;Smith, 1952). Most vitamin-producing bacteria use the 2-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate pathway for the synthesis of vitamins and isoprenoids, and for certain vitamins their presence in the microbiota is crucial for our survival (vitamins K and B 12 ).…”

Possibilities of Newer Bacteriological Techniques

“…It is generally recognized that Gram-positive organisms produce the greater part of spurious presumptive results in the coliform test. It is also known that these organisms are more exacting in their nutritive requirements than the coliform organisms (10). It follows logically that if a medium could he devised in which nutritive elements necessary for the multiplication of interfering forms were absent, the effect of their competition on coliform organisms would be reduced to a minimum.…”

Cobalt and Bacterial Growth, With Special Reference to Proteus Vulgaris

“…In a preliminary attempt to determine whether cobalt was exerting its effect on the growth of Proteus through interference with the utilization by the organism of some nutrient in the medium essential to it as a growth factor, nicotinamide (Peterson and Peterson, 1945) and magnesium sulfate (Knight, 1936) were added to the nutrient broth. Such additions had no effect on the concentration of cobalt required to bring about cessation of growth.…”