Biochemical Activities of Nocardia

Abstract

It seems almost inevitable that the microbiologist searching for new reactions and products will become addicted to a specific genus. This chapter is an attempt to bring attention to a group of microorganisms that are believed to have considerably more potential in microbial transformations than has previously been recognized. The chapter describes the biochemical activities of the gebus nocardia because of their ability to carry out hydroxylations and cleave aromatic rings, reactions that in many instances involve the mechanism of direct addition of molecular oxygen to a substrate. In this regard, they seem to have an advantage over the somewhat more destructive pseudomonads in the accumulation of products. On the other hand, the isolation and characterization of oxygenases and mixed function oxidases, which are responsible for molecular oxygen incorporation, have been almost exclusively confined to the pseudomonads. Seventeen identified and many unidentified soil isolates of the genus Nocardia have been examined for their potential in transformations of hydrocarbons, nonhydrocarbon aromatics, herbicides, and steroids. Of the cultures surveyed, most appear to prefer paraffinic over aromatic hydrocarbons as a growth substrate.