Ornithine transaminase in <i>Neurospora</i> and its relation to the biosynthesis of proline

Abstract

The mould Neurospora crassa is normally able to interconvert proline and ornithine, since either proline or ornithine will satisfy the growth require- ment of certain mutant strains (Srb, Fincham & Bonner, 1950). Another mutant requires proline specifically, while numerous other strains, representing at least four different genetic loci, respond to ornithine but not to proline (Srb & Horowitz, 1944). A knowledge of the enzymic mechanisms involved in the interconversion of these two amino-acids is clearly necessary for a fuller understanding of the effects of the mutations concerned.