Some Aspects of the Amino Acid Metabolism of Penicillium chrysogenum

SUMMARY: Paper chromatographic methods were used to determine the amino acids in unhydrolysed corn steep liquor and to study the uptake and synthesis of amino acids by Penicillium chysogenum. Of the eleven amino acids found in corn steep liquor all were taken up by the organism prior to the main period of penicillin formation. Only traces of ninhydrin-reacting material were present in the later samples of medium. Glutamine, in addition to the eleven amino acids detected in corn steep liquors, was found in mycelium grown on medium containing corn steep liquor. Mycelium from Penieillium chrysogenum grown on medium containing inorganic nitrogen as sole nitrogen source showed the presence of the same twelve amino acids. The gross nitrogen metabolism of various strains of Penicillium spp. used in the production of penicillin has been described previously by Koffler, Emerson, Perlman & Burris (1945) and by Stefaniak, Gailey, Jarvis & Johnson (1946), but less information is available on the detailed amino acid utilization by the organism in deep culture penicillin fermentations. This paper describe