BIOSYNTHESIS OF RIBOFLAVIN BY EREMOTHECIUM ASHBYII: VIII. THE AMINO ACID AND KETO ACID POOLS OF THE MYCELIAL CELL-FREE EXTRACTS AND THEIR RELATION TO TRANSAMINASE ACTIVITIES AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF GROWTH

Abstract

The chromatographic analysis of the mycelial extract revealed the presence of the following amino acids: cystine, lysine, arginine, histidine, serine, glycine, aspartic, glutamic, threonine, α-alanine, proline, α-aminobutyric, tyrosine, valine, and leucine. Of these, glutamic, aspartic, alanine, valine, leucine, glycine, and serine were the major components. No qualitative change was noticed in the types of the amino acids of 2-, 4-, 6-, and 8-day-old cultures. With the increasing age of the culture, glutamic and alanine decreased while serine and glycine increased. Aspartic and threonine did not show noticeable variations in quantity. Pyruvic and α-ketoglutaric acids were the only detectable keto acids either in the cell pool or in the culture medium. The mycelial cell-free extracts exhibited glutamic–oxalacetic transaminase and glutamic–pyruvic transaminase activities.