Studies in the Biochemistry of Micro-organisms. Part XVI— On the production from Glucose by <i>Penicillium Spiculisporum</i> Lehman of a new polybasic fatty acid, C17 H28 O6 (the lactone of γ-hydroxy-βδ-dicarboxypentadecoic acid)

Abstract

Abstract The acid described in this paper is a metabolic product of P. Spiculisporum LEHMAN. This species was isolated by S. G. LEHMAN (1919) from the rootlets of apparently healthy cotton plants taken from a field in Anson County, N.C., U.S.A. It derives its name from the fact that the walls of the ascospores bear minute spines.” The culture used was obtained from the American Type Culture Collection and bears their Catalogue No. 1136, Thom and Church Collection 4391. It was noticed that, when cultures of P. spiculisporum, grown in test tubes on the usual Czapek-Dox medium, were filtered and acidified, an amorphous insoluble white precipitate was produced. This precipitate may be readily crystallised from boiling water and constitutes the product, the preparation, properties and constitution of which will now be described in detail. This product was shown to be the lactone of γ-hydroxy-βδ-dicarboxypentadecoic acid and for the sake of brevity will be referred to throughout as Substance “ A .” It is worthy of mention here, as a further example of the extraordinary specificity of the lower fungi, that Substance “ A ” is produced only by P. spiculisporum and not by any other species either of Penicillium or of any genus in our collection.