The investigations studied the morphological charac ters and nutritional requirements of isolated Arthro bacter like organisms isolated from the surface of some locally made & imported cheeses namely Domiatti, Ras, Edam, Gouda and Gruyere cheese 119 isolated strains were included in the study. The obtained re sult are summarized as follows: 1. The isolated strains were classified into five
groups, namely Arthrobacter, Arthrobecter like,
Intermediate,Coryneform like and Coryneform. 2. Members of both the Arthrobacter and Arthrobacter
like groups were able to utilize inorganic nitro gen either with or without vitamins. The interme diates were equally divided to a vitamin dependant and inorganic nitrogen utilizing in the abcense of
vitamin. 3. All strains utilized both glucose and lactate as
the only carbon source. 4. The most important differential character in clas
sifying the isolated strains to groups was their cell form.