Putrescine as a Growth Requirement for
            <i>Neisseria</i>

Martin, Wayne; Pelczar, Michael J.; Hansen, P. Arne

doi:10.1126/science.116.3018.483

Cited by 49 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Putrescine is known to be an essential growth factor for some organisms (18)(19)(20)(21), and may be essential for growth of some organisms in vaginal flora. As shown in Table III, putrescine was produced in vitro by anaerobe(s) in the vaginal flora of patients with NSV.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amine content of vaginal fluid from untreated and treated patients with nonspecific vaginitis.

Chen¹,

Forsyth²,

Buchanan³

et al. 1979

J. Clin. Invest.

190

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A B S T R A C T We examined the vaginal washings from patients with nonspecific vaginitis (NSV) to seek biochemical markers and possible explanations for the signs and symptoms of this syndrome. Seven amines were identified including methylamine, isobutylamine, putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, tyramine, and phenethylamine. These amines may contribute to the symptoms of NSV and may contribute to the elevated pH of the vaginal discharge. They may also be partly responsible for the "fishy" odor that is characteristic of vaginal discharges from these patients. Among the seven amines, putrescine and cadaverine were the most abundant and were present in all vaginal discharges from each of ten patients before treatment. These amines are produced in vitro during growth of mixed vaginal bacteria in chemically defined medium, presumably by decarboxylation of the corresponding amino acids. We hypothesize that anaerobic vaginal organisms, previously shown to be quantitatively increased in NSV, are responsible for the amine production, because metronidazole inhibited the production ofamines by vaginal bacteria in vitro, and Haemophilus vaginalis did not produce amines. H. vaginalis did release high concentrations of pyruvic acid and of amino acids during growth in peptone-starch-dextrose medium, whereas, other vaginal flora consumed both pyruvic acid and amino acids in the same medium during growth. These findings suggest that a symbiotic relationship may exist between H. vaginalis and other vaginal flora in patients with NSV.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amine content of vaginal fluid from untreated and treated patients with nonspecific vaginitis.

Chen¹,

Forsyth²,

Buchanan³

et al. 1979

J. Clin. Invest.

190

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show abstract

“…3,3 '-Diaminodipropylamine, spermidine, spermine, putrescine, agmatine and diaminopropane were found to be active, while the closely related compounds ornithine, diaminoethane, cadaverine and arcain did not promote growth (Herbst, Glinos & Amundsen, 1955). Similarly, putrescine, spermidine, agmatine and cadaverine have been found to stimulate the growth of the bacterium Neisseria (Martin, Pelczar & Hansen, 1952), and putrescine and cadaverine stimulated the growth of bacteria in the genus V e i l k l l a (Rogosa & Bishop, 1964). Spermidine and spermine were growth factors for lactic acid bacteria, but in this case neither putrescine nor diaminopropane were found to be effective (Kihara & Snell, 1957;Guirard & Snell, 1964).…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Occurrence, Metabolism and Functions of Amines in Plants

Smith

1971

Biological Reviews

140

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“…Polyamines stabilize nucleic acids (90) and appear to be involved in some aspects of protein biosynthesis (87,91,92). Some organisms have an absolute requirement for polyamines (83)(84)(85) while polyamine-deficient mutant strains of E. coli can grow indefinitely, but at a lower rate, in their absence (86). Since decarboxylation of S-adenosylmethionine may be the rate-limiting step of mammalian polyamine biosynthesis (75,80,88) and increased activity of the decarboxylase is often associated with cell proliferation (59), the enzyme is considered a potential target for cancer chemotherapy (89).…”

Section: Metabolic Rolementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is composed of 307 residues, has a Mr of 33,731 calculated from the sequence and is predicted to contain 35% a-helix, 22% P sheet, and 26% reverse turn structures. The proenzyme cleavage site (the amide bond between Ser-81 and Ser-82) is located within a sequence of twenty uncharged residues (positions [69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88] and is predicted to be part of a p-sheet structure that extends from position 71 to position 98. Five of the seven amino acids surrounding the cleavage site from position 78 to ppsition 84 are either serine or threonine residues.…”

Section: Primary Structurementioning

confidence: 99%