Effect of Caffeine on Adenylosuccinate Lyase Synthesis in Bacillus subtilis

Abstract

1. When purine requiring mutants of Bacillus subtilis were cultured for 16 hr in a medium containing caffeine, the specific activity of sAMP lyase [EC 4. 3. 2. 2] increased to about twice as much as that when cultured in the absence of caffeine. Other enzymes in the pathway of purine nucleotide biosynthesis, PRPP amidotransferase [EC 2. 4. 2. 14] and IMP dehydrogenase [EC 1. 2. 1. 14], did not increase with the addition of caffeine.
2. Various xanthine derivatives other than caffeine, did not show any effect.
3. The presence of various concentrations of guanosine or adenosine, which repressed the enzyme formation, did not disturb the caffeine effect.
4. In a purine free medium with or without caffeine, time course of the sAMP lyase formation was tested. While caffeine was not effective in an early stage of the cultivation, the specific activities of sAMP lyase increased rapidly after 12 hr cultivation only when caffeine was present.
5. Puromycin, a specific inhibitor of the protein synthesis, inhibited the effect of caffeine. It was concluded that the effect of caffeine was not activation of the enzyme activity.