EFFECT OF POTASSIUM VERSUS SODIUM IN THE SPORULATION OF SACCHAROMYCES

Abstract

Adamis (1949, 1950) described a modified Stantial (1935) acetate medium consisting of low concentrations of glucose, so(lium acetate, and agar upon which he obtained high yields of asei with a large number of yeast cultures. Although, in his original experiments, Adams (1949) tested a variety of acetate salts, including potassium acetate, he found none of them superior to sodium acetate in about 0.24 per cent concentration. These reports have been followed by a rather extensive series of papers in which Adams' sodium acetate medium has been used with only slight mo(lificatioiis. These include the hybridization and genetic studies of Fowell (1952, 1955) and the extensive studies of physiological factors affecting yeast sporulation on soditum acetate medium of Adams and Miller (1954); Miller et al. (1957a, b); Scheiber et al. (1957); Tremaine and Miller (1954, 1956); 'Miller and Halpern (1956); and Miller (1957). The sodium acetate medium has also proved very useful in cytological studies of McClary et al. (1957a, b) and of Hashimoto et al.