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. 1975 Jul;8(1):5–10. doi: 10.1128/aac.8.1.5

Production of Cephalosporin C by Single and Double Sulfur Auxotrophic Mutants of Cephalosporium acremonium1

Stephen W Drew a,2, Arnold L Demain a
PMCID: PMC429250  PMID: 1172409

Abstract

An early blocked sulfur amino acid auxotroph, Cephalosporium acremonium mutant 274-1 (which could be satisfied by methionine or cysteine), utilized organic sulfur compounds for cephalosporin C production in the following order of decreasing effectiveness; methionine > cystathionine > cysteine, despite the fact that cysteine is considered to be the immediate precursor of the antibiotic. When a genetic block was added to mutant 274-1 in the transsulfuration pathway from cysteine to methionine, the double mutant 11-8 (which grows on methonine but not cysteine) failed to produce cephalosporin C from cysteine even though enough methionine was added to support normal growth. Addition of the non-sulfur analogue, norleucine, resulted in antibiotic production from cysteine in the double mutant. These facts support the hypothesis that methionine stimulation of cephalosporin C production is due to a role of methionine other than that of sulfur donation.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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