Biosynthetic Precursors of Vitamin K as Growth Promoters for Bacteroides melaninogenicus

Abstract

The growth of a vitamin K-requiring strain of Bacteroides melaninogenicus was promoted by some postulated and proven biosynthetic precursors of bacterial menaquinones, 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid, shikimic acid, chorismic acid, and 4(2′-carboxyphenyl)-4-oxobutyric acid. Growth of the organism with [ 2 ′, 4 - 14 C 2 ]-4(2′-carboxy phenyl)-4-oxobutyric acid as the vitamin K replacement gave rise to a mixture of radioactive menaquinone-9 and menaquinone-10; the dilution factor for this incorporation was 1.8.