Studies in the metabolism of the strict anaerobes (Genus Clostridium)

THE first paper of this series The study of the chemistry of these reactions obviously involves the use of two substrates simultaneously, so that there is difficulty in deciding from which of these substrates the products have arisen. If, however, the products of reaction of any one amino-acid can be determined, the rest of the information required will follow from the analysis of the products of reaction of the various pairs. The oxidation of alanine by cresyl blue, described in the previous paper, would serve as a starting point, but it is impossible by this method to oxidise sufficient alanine to permit of the identification and estimation of the products. Eventually for various reasons the reduction of I-proline was chosen as a starting point, and the present paper deals with this subject.