Response of Aerobacter Aerogenes Methionine Auxotrophs to Adenine Thiomethyl Compounds

It has been shown that many microorganisms produce thiomethyl adenosine from methionine (Smith and Schlenk, 1952). This prompted bio-chemical studies on the relationship between methionine and thiomethyl adenosine, which re-sulted in the discovery of methionyl adenosine as the key intermediate (Catoni, 1952; Schlenk, 1952). Replacement of methionine by thiomethyl adenosine has not been demonstrated with methionine auxotrophs of Escerichia coli (Davis and Mingioli, 1950). However, thiomethyl adeno-sine has been shown to replace the adenine re-quirement of LactobaciUus arabinosus (Schlenk and Gingrich, 1944) and the adenine requirement of adenine auxotrophs of E. coli (Davis and Mingioli, 1950). The successful isolation of methionine auxotrophs of Aerobacter aerogenes which utilize thiomethyl adenosine or methionyl adenosine in place of methionine will be re-ported here. MATERIALS AND MtETHODS