The Metabolism of Putrescine (1,4-Diaminobutane) by Mycobacteria Isolated From Fish: I. Preliminary Studies With Intact Cells

Three mycobacterial strains isolated from fish were tested for their ability to metabolize various amines, supplied individually as sources of carbon. A series of six aliphatic and two cyclic amines was used. Growth occurred only with putrescine. The ability to oxidize putrescine was enhanced by growing the cells in the presence of the compound. Putrescine did not appear to influence the rate of endogenous respiration and therefore O2uptake values were corrected for endogenous O2uptake. During the oxidation of putrescine by washed cells, O2uptake curves "broke" at a point corresponding to 41–44% of the maximum level of oxidation. Thereafter, very small increases in O2uptake occurred so that on the completion of experiments, the level of oxidation corresponded to 45–47%. At this point, 69–76% of the amino nitrogen of putrescine was released as ammonia, the rest being assimilated. Using putrescine-1,4-14C under CO2-free conditions, approximately 75% of the terminal carbons were evolved as14CO2. Since the data suggested that carbons 2 and 3 were assimilated, CO2production accounted for a loss of 37.5% of putrescine carbon. When washed cells oxidized putrescine-1,4-14C, cell fractions containing lipid, nucleic acid, and protein were rapidly labelled.