1-(<i>o</i>-Carboxyphenylamino)-1-deoxyribulose. A compound formed by mutant strains of <i>Aerobacter aerogenes</i> and <i>Escherichia coli</i> blocked in the biosynthesis of tryptophan

Abstract

This paper presents the evidence for assigning the structure 1-(o-carboxyphenylamino)l-deoxyribu- lose to a compound (Y) formed by mutant strains of Aerobacter aerogene.8 ( N3-33, N2-18) and E8cherichia coli (R 19-33). The experiments with A. aerogenes have been reported briefly None of these strains would grow in the minimal medium described by Davis & Mingioli (1950) unless this was supplemented with tryptophan or indole, and were therefore presumably unable to convert anthranilic acid into indole. Therefore it is possible that 1-(o-carboxyphenylamino)-l-deoxyribulose (A) is an intermediate in the conversion of anthranilic acid into indole, probably as the immediate precursor of indolylglycerol (Yanofsky, 1956), thus: