EFFECTS OF CULTURAL VARIATION ON CELL SIZE IN A MARINE FUNGUS

¹ Department of Botany, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York 27, N. Y.

1. When a marine isolant of Phoma herbarum West. was grown in a variety of temperatures and on media containing various amounts of salts in the proportions of sea water, the size of the cells, expressed as hyphal diameters, was not greatly changed unless a temperature high enough to be inhibitory (37° C.) was applied in conjunction with a relatively low salinity (25 S ), under which conditions more thick hyphae and fewer thin ones grew.

2. Temperature effects upon total growth, expressed as colony diameter, and upon cell size, expressed as hyphal diameters, were similar only in that a temperature approaching the maximum is required to make any considerable change in the salinity optima or in the frequency of larger cells.