Cyanide Production and Degradation During Growth of Chromobacterium violaceum

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Abstract
Cyanogenesis by growing cultures of C. violaceum was stimulated by the inclusion of glycine and methionine in the growth medium. Increases in the Fe2+ and phosphate concentrations of the growth medium stimulated cyanide production. C. violaceum possesses a number of cyanide-utilizing enzymes: .beta.-cyanoalanine synthase, .gamma.-cyano-.alpha.-aminobutyric acid synthase and rhodanese. Studies on the activities of these enzymes in cell-free extracts of cultures growing under both high and low cyanide-evolving conditions are presented. Addition of chloramphenicol to high and low cyanide-evolving cultures towards the end of exponential growth had a profound effect on the medium cyanide concentrations. These observations were caused by chloramphenicol blocking the induction of the cyanide-utilizing enzymes.