Aromatic-alcohol-oxidase activity in the growth medium of Polystictus versicolor

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Abstract
Growth media of P. versicolor, or water left in contact with mycelial mats of this fungus, contained an enzyme system which transferred hydrogen from aromatic alcohols to molecular oxygen, with the formation of aromatic aldehydes and hydrogen peroxide. No phenol-oxidase activity was detected. Activity was estimated either by spectrophotometric estimation of the rate of aldehyde formation, or by oxygen uptake. The enzyme system could be concentrated from growth media, though with some loss, by ammonium sulphate precipitation. Of the substances tested, all the primary aromatic alcohols, which included [beta]-naphthylcarbinol, benzyl alcohol and 7 other ring-substituted benzyl alcohols, were oxidized, but 3 secondary 1-phenylethanols were not. Glucose, ethanol, butanol and the L-amino acids tested were not oxidized. Enzyme activity was little affected by p-chloromercuribenzoate, cyanide or azide ions. There was no evidence for pyridine nucleotide participation in the reaction.