THE BACTERIAL DEGRADATION OF CATECHOL

1. Two strains of Pseudomonas were grown with phenol and used to prepare cell extracts that metabolized catechol with the transient formation of 2-hydroxymuconic semialdehyde. 2. One of these preparations catalysed the conversion of 1mol. of catechol into 1mol. each of formate and 4-hydroxy-2-oxovalerate. 3. A method for the determination of 4-hydroxy-2-oxovalerate is described, together with some properties of this compound and its 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone. 4. Another partially purified cell extract converted 1mol. of 4-hydroxy-2-oxovalerate, formed enzymically from catechol, into 1mol. each of acetaldehyde and pyruvate. This aldolase had a pH optimum of about 8.8, was stimulated by Mg(2+) ions and appeared to attack only one enantiomer of synthetic 4-hydroxy-2-oxovalerate.

INDUCTION AND MULTI-SENSITIVE END-PRODUCT REPRESSION IN THE ENZYMIC PATHWAY DEGRADING MANDELATE IN PSEUDOMONAS FLUORESCENS

1. The first five enzymes involved in the degradation of mandelate in Pseudomonas fluorescens have been examined. 2. Induction is not significantly affected by glucose. 3. The first three enzymes form a group inducible by mandelate and repressible by benzoate, catechol and succinate. 4. The possibility that benzoate and catechol act as repressors only after they have been degraded to succinate is unlikely since mutants blocked at suitable points in the pathway have the same repression pattern as the wild type. 5. It is concluded that synthesis of the enzymes is subject to a multi-sensitive repression mechanism that can be independently activated by benzoate or catechol or succinate. 6. In each case the repression can be largely overcome by increasing the concentration of the inducer. 7. The enzymes of the first group are thus controlled by a dual system in which induction by the first substrate is opposed by repression exerted by the end product of the first group and by the products of succeeding groups.

EFFECT OF WATER EXTRACTS OF CAROB PODS, TANNIC ACID, AND THEIR DERIVATIVES ON THE MORPHOLOGY AND GROWTH OF MICROORGANISMS

The effect of aqueous extracts of carob (Ceratonia siliqua) pods, gallotannic acid, gallic acid, and catechol on several microorganisms was studied. Carob pod extract and tannic acid showed a strong antimicrobial activity toward some cellulolytic bacteria. On the basis of tannin content, to which antimicrobial effect was related, carob pod extracts inhibited Cellvibrio fulvus and Clostridium cellulosolvens at 15 mug/ml, Sporocytophaga myxococcoides at 45 mug/ml, and Bacillus subtilis at 75 mug/ml. The inhibiting concentrations for tannic acid were found to be 12, 10, 45, and 30 mug/ml, respectively. Gallic acid and catechol were much less effective. Tannic acid and the tannin fraction of carob extract exerted both bacteriostatic and bactericidal effects on C. fulvus. Respiration of C. fulvus in the presence of bactericidal concentrations of tannic acid or tannin fraction of carob extract was inhibited less than 30%. A partial formation of "protoplasts" by C. fulvus was obtained after 2 hr of incubation in a growth medium to which 20% sucrose, 0.15% MgSO(4).7H(2)O, and 10 to 50 mug/ml of tannic acid or 500mug/ml of penicillin, or both, had been added. Tannic acid and the tannin fraction of carob extract protected C. fulvus from metabolic lysis in sucrose solution. Although the growth of other microorganisms tested was only slightly affected, the morphology of some of them was drastically changed in the presence of subinhibitory concentrations of carob pod extracts of tannic acid. It is suggested that the site of action of tannins on sensitive microorganisms is primarily the cell envelope.