Abstract
The effect of biotin and oleic acid on the cellular fatty acid contents, and the relation between the cellular fatty acid contents and the productivity of L-glutamic acid were investigated using Brevibacterium thiogenitalis No. 653 and its oleic acid-requiring mutant, D-248.
While the synthesis of palmitic acid in D-248 was stimulated by biotin and competitively reversed by oleic acid added to the culture medium, the level of cellular oleic acid was scarcely affected by biotin but regulated by oleic acid in the medium.
For the productivity of L-glutamic acid, the most important factor was the level of cellular oleic acid, and the effect of cellular palmitic acid was considerably weak. This relation was subjected to a figuration and able to be expressed on the whole as one ex-ponential-like curve. An amount of over 70 per cent of cellular fatty acids was distributed in the phospholipid fraction and its fatty acid composition was almost the same as that of whole cells.
