Oxygen and nitrate in utilization by Bacillus licheniformis of the arginase and arginine deiminase routes of arginine catabolism and other factors affecting their syntheses.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
B. licheniformis has 2 pathways of arginine catabolism. In well-aerated cultures, the arginase route is present, and levels of catabolic ornithine carbamoyltransferase were low. An arginase pathway-deficient mutant, BL196, failed to grow on arginine as a N source under these conditions. In anaerobiosis, the wild type contained very low levels of arginase and ornithine transaminase. BL196 grew normally on glucose plus arginine in anaerobiosis and, like the wild type, had appreciable levels of catabolic transferase. Nitrate, like O2, repressed ornithine carbamoyltransferase and stimulated arginase synthesis. In aerobic cultures, arginase was repressed by glutamine in the presence of glucose, but not when the C-energy source was poor. In anaerobic cultures, NH3 repressed catabolic ornithine carbamoyltransferase, but glutamate and glutamine stimulated its synthesis. A 2nd mutant, derived from BL196, retained the low arginase and ornithine transaminase levels of BL196 but produced high levels of deiminase pathway enzymes in the presence of O2.