Nucleotide accumulation in penicillin inhibited B. stearothermophilus: A report on a research project carried out in completion of the requirements for the degree of B.Sc. Hons (Biochem)

Abstract

The accumulation of nucleotides has been confirmed in a number of micro-organisms treated with penicillin since Park and Johnson ( 1) originally observed that uracil containing compounds accumulated in penicillin inhibited Staphylococcus aureus. Park later (2) identified three uridine-5 -pyrophosphate muramic acid peptides containing successively the amino acids L-alanine; D-glutamic and L-lysine; and lastly two residues of D-alanine. The study discussed below was originally intended to be a comparison of the nucleotide accumulation in the ther.nophils Bacillus stearothermophilus (T₁₅ ) and B. ooagulans (T₇) using various antibiotics and at two temperatures, 37°c and 55°c. As will be shown the failure to observe intracellular nucleotide accumulation in penicillin inhibited B. stearothermophilus led to an attempt to follow and characterise the nucleotides which were shown to accumulate in the medium under these circumstances.