The Intermediate Metabolism of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa: Iii. The Application of Paper Chromatography to the Identification of Gluconic and 2-Ketogluconic Acids, Intermediates in Glucose Oxidation

The technique of paper chromatography has been adapted to the identification of gluconic, 2-ketogluconic, and α-ketoglutaric acids. Combinations of methyl and ethyl alcohol were found to be the most suitable solvents and ammoniacal silver nitrate was found to give the most satisfactory reaction. When grown under normal physiological conditions where glucose was metabolized to carbon dioxide and water, Pseudomonas aeruginosa 9027 was shown to have oxidized glucose by way of gluconic and 2-ketogluconic acids. Since a strong system for oxidizing both gluconic and 2-ketogluconic acids was demonstrated, the presence of these acids over at least an eight hour period of growth is taken as evidence of their importance as intermediates in the oxidation of glucose by this organism.