Studies on the Isolation and Nature of the 'Terregens Factor'

A procedure is described for the production and concentration of the 'terregens factor' (TF), a bacterial growth promoting substance synthesized by Arthrobacter pascens and essential for the growth of Arthrobacter terregens. From culture filtrates of A. pascens cultivated in a medium of inorganic salts and sucrose, concentrates of TF may be obtained that are active at 0.001 μgm. Per ml., heat stable and contain about 12.7% nitrogen. Acid hydrolysis yielded a number of amino acids, including glutamic acid, glycine, α–alanine, valine, leucine, proline, lysine, and arginine, as well as some unidentified compounds; however, TF does not appear to be a low molecular weight straight chain peptide.Although TF contains no iron, it combines readily with ferrous or ferric iron to form reddish-brown complexes with this metal. Activity for A. terregens is shown by certain iron containing complexes as hemin, coprogen, and ferrichrome. On the other hand none is shown by cytochrome or pulcherrimin; however, aspergillic acid, structurally related to the latter, possesses some growth promoting activity for the test organism.