抄録
The metabolic pathway of aniline was examined in Rhodococcus erythropolis AN-13 that was isolated from soil when aniline was provided as a sole source of carbon and nitrogen. cis, cis-Muconic acid and /Mtetoadipic acid were detected by thin-layer chromatography in an incubation mixture containing aniline and resting cells of this strain. These two carboxylic acids were also formed from cateehol, when the substrate was incubated with cell-free extract of aniline-grown cells, and characterized spectrally as crystalline samples. Ammoniawas released from aniline by resting cells. The cell-free extract of aniline-grown cells had a strong catechol 1, 2-dioxygenase activity. Catechol, once formed from aniline, was apparently converted so rapidly to cis, cis-muconic acid that it could not be isolated. These results suggest that R.erythropolis AN-13 converted aniline to catechol with the release of ammonia and then mineralized catechol ultimately to inorganic end products, H2O and CO2, through the β-ketoadipic acid pathway.
