Common degradative pathways of morpholine, thiomorpholine, and piperidine by Mycobacterium aurum MO1: evidence from (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance and ionspray mass spectrometry performed directly on the incubation medium.

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In order to see if the biodegradative pathways for morpholine and thiomorpholine during degradation by Mycobacterium aurum MO1 could be generalized to other heterocyclic compounds, the degradation of piperidine by this strain was investigated by performing (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance directly with the incubation medium. Ionspray mass spectrometry, performed without purification of the samples, was also used to confirm the structure of some metabolites during morpholine and thiomorpholine degradation. The results obtained with these two techniques suggested a general pathway for degradation of nitrogen heterocyclic compounds by M. aurum MO1. The first step of the degradative pathway is cleavage of the C---N bond; this leads formation of an intermediary amino acid, which is followed by deamination and oxidation of this amino acid into a diacid. Except in the case of thiodiglycolate obtained from thiomorpholine degradation, the dicarboxylates are completely mineralized by the bacterial cells. A comparison with previously published data showed that this pathway could be a general pathway for degradation by other strains of members of the genus Mycobacterium.