EFFECT OF HALOGENS ON THE CHLORAMPHENICOL FERMENTATION

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In the absence of chloride ion, a streptomycete which produced chloramphenicol (designated Streptomyces sp. 3022) was shown to synthesize a family of acylated p-nitrophenylserinols which included N-acetyl-, N-n-propionyl-, and N-n-butyryl-p-nitro-phenylserinol, and an unidentified compound with paper chromatogram mobility expected for N-pentanoyl or N-hexanoyl-p-nitrophenylserinol. When assayed chemically, chloride deficient fermentation beers were found to contain the equivalent of 400 [mu]g of chloramphenicol per ml, but when assayed biologically they contained only 25 [mu]g per ml of "chloramphenicol equivalents". In the presence of available chloride, the culture was shown to produce only chloramphenicol at a concentration of approximately 150 [mu]g per ml, whether assayed chemically or biologically. Thus, the total p-nitrophenylserinol compounds were decreased in the presence of chloride. When bromide was added to a medium containing chloride, the culture shifted its synthesis from chloramphenicol to the above mentioned acylated-p-nitrophenylserinols plus N-monochloromonobromoacetyl- and N-dibromoacetyl-p-nitro-phenylserinol. Bromide addition was equivalent to chloride removal under the conditions employed in this study. The addition of fluoride or iodide to the fermentation medium had almost no demonstrable effect on the biosynthesis of chloramphenicol by this culture.