Abstract
Many cultures of the Streptococcus mitis group have been reported to oxidize butyric acid with the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in both growing cultures and resting cell suspensions (Niven, Evans, and White, 1945). An investigation of this reaction was undertaken in this laboratory with the ultimate aim of obtaining information concerning the mechanism of the oxidation. The mechanism of butyric acid oxidation by enzymatic preparations of Clostridium kluyveri has been extensively investigated (Stadtman and Barker, 1949; Kennedy and Barker, 1951a). However, since these workers were studying the oxidation with preparations from an obligate anaerobic organism having a rather unusual energy metabolism, it seemed of interest to pursue similar studies with an organism having more orthodox metabolic patterns. This report will be confined to an account of the isolation of a strain of S. mitis that oxidizes butyric acid, and to some of the characteristics of the butyrate-oxidizing system in resting suspensions of this organism.
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