MP069 Microbiological examinations of mediaeval soil samples for pathogenic spore formers. — Preliminary results

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Lysine fermentation (Clostridium). The fermentation of lysine to fatty acids and ammonia by Clostridium sticklandii and certain other unidentified clostridial strains such as Clostridium M-E and Clostridium SB4 is a complex series of reactions. Growing cultures and suspensions of intact cells effect two types of cleavage of the carbon skeleton of lysine. In addition to the enzymes specific for L-α-lysine and D-α-lysine, a powerful racemase that interconverts these isomers is present in extracts of C. sticklandii and CIostridium M-E. The various diaminohexanoates that are interconverted in the lysine fermentation can be detected by a combination of chromatographic and electrophoretic procedures. When subjected to high voltage electrophoresis on Whatman 3 MM paper at pH 3.5, the basic amino acids migrate the following distances from the origin toward the cathode (cm): 3,6-diaminohexanoate (β-1ysine), 58.5; 3,5-diaminohexanoate, 53.5; and 2,6-diaminohexanoate (α-lysine), 49.5. At this pH, 2,5-diaminohexanoate has virtually the same mobility as α-lysine.