Mitotic Disturbances Induced in Yeast by Chemicals, and their Significance for the Interpretation of the Normal Chromosome Conditions of Yeast

Abstract

THE camphor reaction of yeast, described by Bauch¹, was interpreted by me² as a narcosis affecting the normal growth of the yeast cell. Instead of budding normally, the yeast, under the influence of many chemicals of the same type as the narcotics, grows out into associations of cells, which show an irregular, tube-like, bottle-shaped or vesicular form. Their cell volume is often enlarged. In 1938 and 1939, Segal³ induced this reaction by treatment with the higher aliphatic alcohols and fusel oil. The so-called involution forms of yeast, often observed in ageing cultures in connexion with the autolysis, seems to be a phenomenon of the same nature, the yeast cells narcotizing themselves with their own metabolic products.