@article{mbs:/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-3-2-319, author = "Proom, H. and Woiwod, A. J.", title = "The Examination, by Partition Paper Chromatography, of the Nitrogen Metabolism of Bacteria", journal= "Microbiology", year = "1949", volume = "3", number = "2", pages = "319-327", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-3-2-319", url = "https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-3-2-319", publisher = "Microbiology Society", issn = "1465-2080", type = "Journal Article", abstract = "Summary: Some 300 strains of bacteria representing twenty genera were grown on an acid-hydrolysed casein medium. Using the paper chromatographic technique of Woiwod (1949) a preliminary survey was made of the amino-acid and polypeptide composition of the bacterial culture filtrates. It was proved that: (a) changes may occur in the filtrate chromatogram which have group or species significance; (b) bacteria with simple nutrient requirements, i.e. which utilize ammonia, do not affect the chromatogram in the initial growth stage; (c) whenever the chromatogram is affected serine is the first amino-acid to be metabolized; (d) Gram-positive bacteria eliminate the aspartic acid spot but leave the basic amino-acid group unaffected, and the reverse occurs with Gram-negative bacteria; (e) many bacteria synthesize ninhydrin-positive material, presumably polypeptide, the synthesis of a given kind of polypep-tide being sometimes associated with a particular group or species of bacteria. By a disintegrator technique it was demonstrated that bacteria store many free amino-acids inside the cell.", }