thermophiles and psychrophiles

[steven h landau]

Mark A Gallo (GALLO at MACC.WISC.EDU) wrote:
: Dear microbiologists,
:  
: 	I am trying to help some people in an introductory Chemistry lab.  They
: want to show their students that organisms follow a different set of rules than
: a chemical reaction when the temperature is modified.  In particular, I felt it
: would be nice for them to grow a psychrophile, a mesophile, and a thermophile at
: various temperatures to get a feel for the variation in the peak operating
: ranges for various organisms.  I would like to know of some easy to grow
: bacteria that are nonpathogenic and would span a reasonable range of
: temperatures.  Possibly if there were some thermotrophs, they would be
: interesting to have too.  Thanks for your answers.
:  
:                                         Mark Gallo
:                                         Biocore Program
:                                         Noland Hall
:                                         The University of Wisconsin
:                                         Madison, WI  53706
:                                         (608)262-7374


Bacillus Stearothermophilus is a standard used for heat sterilization 
challenge tests.  It grows at 60C, and is not really toxic.  It can also 
be used to show heat desturction of microbes.

Take similar cultures and heat them in test tubes at different 
temperatures and different times.  THis work was done by STUMBO in the 
30's to study sterilization for food canning.

Check with a food science textbook, for more info on this bug.

___________________
Steven K. Landau
Charm Bioengineering, Inc.
36 Franklin St.
Malden, MA  02148
TEL:    617-322-4885
FAX:    617-322-3141
E-MAIL: slandau at world.std.com
_____________________________