Abstract
It was investigated using a flavinogenic and a non-flavinogenic strains of E. ashbyii whether the addition of caffeine into the non-growing cell medium brought about the accumulation of some compounds or not. The addition of glucose remarkably stimulated riboflavin production in the flavinogenic strain but the addition of caffeine restricted riboflavin production as described in the previous paper^<7)>. On the other hand, the marked effects of glucose or caffeine as found in the flavinogenic strain were not observed in the non-flavinogenic strain. The addition of caffeine in the absence of glucose resulted in the accumulation of unknown compound in mycelia of flavinogenic strain. But, there were no accumulations in the non-flavinogenic strain. This unknown compound was elucidated to be chromatographically single and to consist of adenine, guanine, ribose, phosphorus and glutathione by means of various qualitative and quantitative tests. Furthermore, this compound included adenine and guanine in the equimolar ratio. The role of this compound in the biosynthetic pathway of riboflavin was discussed in relation to the mode of action of glutathione.
