Further Studies on Formation of N-Formyl Hydroxyaminoacetic Acid by Penicillium

SUMMARY

Some metabolic changes that occur during growth and production of N-formyl hydroxyaminoacetic acid (NFHAA) by strains of Penicillium frequentans and Penicillium aurantio-violaceum are described.

A synthetic medium was developed for study of possible formation of N-formyl hydroxy analogues of other amino acids. The synthetic medium supports good growth but little or no NFHAA production. Addition of a number of single amino acids to this medium at the start of fermentation or after four days of growth resulted in the production of product(s) that formed a red complex with ferric chloride which absorbed at 4950 Å.

Fermentation broths, charged with single amino acids, were assayed for plant growth inhibition if the spectrophotometric assay showed sufficient NFHAA to be present. Of those tested, only the broth charged with phenylalanine was not active. Paper chromatography of these broths, plus isolation studies on a few, strongly indicate that NFHAA was present rather than N-formyl hydroxy analogues of other amino acids.