SUMMARY: β-Ketoadipate serves as a chemoattractant for Pseudomonas putida. The chemotactic response is inducible, and a regulatory mutant strain that forms the β-ketoadipate transport system at high levels exhibits a heightened chemotactic response to β-ketoadipate. Adipate and succinate, compounds that interact with the transport system, inhibit chemotaxis toward β-ketoadipate. Some, but not all, mutants that fail to respond chemotactically to β-ketoadipate lack the β-ketoadipate transport system. It thus appears that the transport of β-ketoadipate is associated with its function as a chemoattractant. It is likely that the metabolite attracts fluorescent Pseudomonas species to environments in which complex aromatic polymers undergo microbial dissimilation.
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