Methyl mercaptan and dimethyl disulfide production from methionine by Proteus species detected by head-space gas-liquid chromatography

Head-space gas-liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry were used to detect and identify products formed by Proteus vulgaris, P. mirabilis, P. morganii, and P. rettgeri from a defined medium supplemented with either phenylalanine, methionine, valine, leucine, histidine, lysine, ornithine, threonine, asparagine, aspartic acid, or tryptophan. In a detailed study of the products formed by 68 strains of Proteus spp. from L-methionine, the production of large amounts of both dimethyl disulfide and methyl mercaptan was found to be a characteristic of the genus. Both sulfur products appeared within a few hours of inoculation. Dimethyl disulfide was a more sensitive indicator of growth than the spectrometric determination of optical density. This suggests that it could be useful for the rapid, automated detection of any species of Proteus.