November 15, 1967

MONTHLY REPORT

November 1967

Chin K . Lee

Efforts have been centered in obtaining a mutant of constitutive with

glucose isomerase which would not require xylose for the induction of the
isomerase . Key to this problem is how to distinguish isomerase+ and
isomerase- cells without individually assaying the enzyme activity .
According to Lin, et al ., (BIOCHIM . BIOPHYS . ACTA, 60 (1962) 422-424),
constitutive mutant for carbohydrate catabolizing enzymes are isolated
by the use of triphenyltetrazolium chloride . This method is being applied
with minor adjustment for Arthrobacter . It has been also noticed that
when the cells are shifted from rich medium to synthetic salt medium,
isomerase+ cells are able to grow with xylose as a carbon and energy
source while isomerase- cells take long lag period in adapting to
xylose . This property is also being explored in the hope of utilizing
it as a fast screening method for the constitutive mutant . Actual iso-
lation of desired mutant would require further experiments .

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