Enzymology and regulation of the atropine metabolism in pseudomonas putida

This thesis describes the tropic acid enzymes which in 4 steps catalyze the metabolic pathway of the alkaloid atropine. The enzymes have been discovered in a Pseudomonas bacterium from soil underneath the Atropa belladonna plant, the natural producer of atropine. These 4 enzymes are highly specific and show peculiar kinetics explained by the very asymmetrical equilibrium for step 2 and a keto-enol tautomerism for the product of step 2, the 2-phenylmalonic semialdehyde. The last part concerns the regulation of enzyme synthesis by product induction and its major advantage for cell economy. This thesis was written in the Dutch Language in 1969 and at that time deposited in the Repositorium of the Library of the Technical University, Delft, The Netherlands htpps://repository.tudelft.nl/view/tno; # 268336.Only in 2019 the thesis was translated by the author in English as precise copy nearly page by page of the 1969 version (no update). The English translation is only meant to disseminate the scientific data, described in the Dutch version. It does not intend to add any new data. In case of differences in the interpretation of the intellectual property only the Dutch version counts.