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Abstract
SUMMARY: Production of nitrite from the oxime of pyruvic acid was observed with three groups of heterotrophic soil bacteria: Nocardia corallina, Alcaligenes spp. and Agrobacterium spp. The first could nitrify up to 64% of the oxime-nitrogen in an inorganic salts solution, the second and third up to 43 and 36%, respectively. Glucose inhibited nitrification by stimulating the synthesis of cell substance; nitrification by Nocardia corallina ceased at C:N ratios above 20:1. Approximately 75– 90% of the oxime-nitrogen was recovered as nitrite + cell-nitrogen in cultures of Nocardia and Alcaligenes spp. In peptone medium Nocardia corallina converted the oxime almost quantitatively to nitrite; the rate of nitrite production was parallel with that of cell multiplication. Alcaligenes and Agrobacterium spp. caused a further removal of the nitrite in peptone medium, the latter organism by denitrification. The oxime of oxaloacetic acid was readily nitrified by Alcaligenes spp. Acetoxime was only nitrified to a slight extent and free hydroxylamine apparently not at all. Several other organisms, of which Corynebacterium equi was a possible exception, did not nitrify pyruvic acid oxime.
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