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Volume 116, Issue 1

Cyanide Production and Degradation during Growth of the Snow Mould Fungus Free

Abstract

Isolate W of the snow mould basidiomycete produced cyanide only at the start of the stationary phase when it was grown in shake cultures on a glucose-containing synthetic medium in which growth stopped because of glucose depletion. Cyanogenesis was stimulated by inclusion of glycine in the medium, but the presence of methionine in addition to glycine caused little further cyanide formation. Addition of cyclic AMP to the medium had no effect on the time of production or the concentration of cyanide formed. Cultures that contained excess glucose at the start of the stationary phase also produced cyanide. Cultures which contained acetate as the carbon source formed cyanide during growth and in the stationary phase; cyanogenesis was again stimulated by glycine. In cultures containing glucose, [1-C]glycine was converted to CO during both the growth and stationary phases, whereas [2-C]glycine was the precursor of [C]cyanide only at the start of the stationary phase: Very little of the cyanohydrins of glyoxylic acid or pyruvic acid were formed. Cyanide was converted to CO, as the major detoxication product; there was little formation of alanine, -cyanoalanine, glutamate. formamide, or aspartate plus asparagine.

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© Society for General Microbiology 1980
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1980-01-01
2024-04-25
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Cyanide Production and Degradation during Growth of the Snow Mould Fungus
Microbiology 116, 9 (1980); https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-116-1-9
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-116-1-9
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-116-1-9
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