Cyanide Production and Degradation During Growth of Chromobacterium violaceum

Abstract

Cyanogenesis by growing cultures of Chromobacterium violaceum was stimulated by the inclusion of glycine and methionine in the growth medium. Increases in the ferrous ion and phosphate concentrations of the growth medium stimulated cyanide production. Chromobacterium violaceum possesses a number of cyanide-utilizing enzymes: β-cyanoalanine synthase, γ-cyano-α-aminobutyric acid synthase and rhodanese. Studies on the activities of these enzymes in cell-free extracts of cultures growing under both high and low cyanide-evolving conditions are presented. Addition of chloramphenicol to high and low cyanide-evolving cultures towards the end of exponential growth had a profound effect on the medium cyanide concentrations. These observations are shown to have been caused by chloramphenicol blocking the induction of the cyanide-utilizing enzymes.