Studies in the biochemistry of micro-organisms

OF the many crystalline sugar alcohols occurring naturally in the plant king- dom, only mannitol has hitherto been isolated as a metabolic product of the lower fungi when grown on synthetic media.This alcohol is a tissue constituent of many, if not most, mould species and is sometimes present in large amounts in the metabolism solution if glucose or certain other simple sugars are supplied as the source of carbon.Sorbitol has only once, and dulcitol has never been isolated from the tissues of the higher fungi, but the tetrahydric alcohol i- erythritol (CH20H.CHOH.CHOH.CH2OH) is of frequent occurrence in algae and lichens, and has also been isolated, together with mannitol [Zellner, 1910], from the spores of the corn smut Ustilago maydis, a micro-fungus parasitic on maize, Zea Mays.It might therefore be expected to occur among the metabolic products of moulds grown on synthetic media.The present paper describes the isolation of i-erythritol, in small yield, from the mycelia of two different, and not closely related species of Penicillium, viz., P. brevi-compactum Dierckx and P. cyclopium Westling, both grown on synthetic media.