THE OXIDATION OF p-AMINOBENZOIC ACID AND ANTHRANILIC ACID BY SPECIFICALLY ADAPTED ENZYMES OF A SOIL BACILLUS

Abstract

1. A soil bacillus has been isolated capable of developing specific adaptive enzymes which oxidize PABA apparently to carbon dioxide, water, and ammonia. A few related compounds which, however, do not give the diazo reaction are similarly attacked. 2. This bacillus is also capable of developing analogous but apparently independent adaptive enzymes specifically directed against anthranilic acid, the ortho isomer of PABA. 3. Sulfapyridine is bacteriostatic for this bacillus and this effect is inhibited as in the case of other bacterial species by PABA. Other effects of the sulfonamide drugs and sulfanilic acid upon the specific oxidative enzymes have been described. 4. The specific adaptive enzymes of this soil bacillus may be used for the identification of as little as 10 gamma of either PABA or OABA. A method is described for carrying out these determinations. 5. The possible advantages of this enzymatic method as compared with the more sensitive but less specific techniques which measure the activity of PABA as a growth factor for certain bacterial species have been discussed.

Enzymatic oligomerization and polymerization of arylamines: state of the art and perspectives

“…About 40 years later, the formation of several oligomers of aniline upon its oxidation with H 2 O 2 in the presence of peroxidase from horseradish (HRP) or turnips in dilute aqueous acetic acid at pH 4.5 was reported by Mann and Saunders (1935). The first reports on the enzymatic oxidation of substituted anilines appeared in the first half of twentieth century, e.g., the oxidative dimerization of o -phenylenediamine ( o -PDA) (Chodat 1925) and mesidine (2,4,6-trimethylaniline) (Chapman and Saunders 1941) by peroxidase/H 2 O 2 , the oxidative oligomerization of p -toluidine (Saunders and Mann 1940) by peroxidase/H 2 O 2 , and the oxidative degradation of p -aminobenzoic acid and o -aminobenzoic acid (anthranilic acid) by specifically adapted enzymes of a soil bacillus/O 2 (Mirick 1943). Since then, a lot of research work was devoted to various types of enzymatic oxidations of substituted anilines including both the N/C-oxidation and coupling reactions.…”

Para-Aminobenzoic Acid Production by Staphylococci

“…Mirick (6) utilized a suspension of a soil bacillus, which could be specifically adapted to oxidize PABA, and found that this suspension rapidly destroyed the diazotizable sulfonamide-inhibiting substance present in the filtrate prepared from a sulfonamide-resistant strain of pneumococcus. More recently Mirick (7) has presented a method for quantitating small amounts of PABA with the aid of specific adapted enzymes of this same soil bacillus. Landy and his associates (8) have investigated with a microbiological assay two sulfonamideresistant strains of staphylococcus supplied by us, and reported that the sulfonamide inhibitor elaborated by these strains was PABA.…”

Influence of Tyrosine and Some Other Substances on the Laccase Formation in Polyporus Species

“…However, some parallels to these results may be found in investigations on other enzymes, for instance those of Mirick, Phaff, and particularly Monod and coworkers. Mirick (6) found that p-nitrobenzoic acid would induce formation of the PABA-oxidizing enzyme in a soil Pseudomonas. This result was considered to depend on a metabolic transformation of p-nitrobenzoic acid to the specific substrate.…”