Catabolism of arginine, citrulline and ornithine by Pseudomonas and related bacteria

The distribution of the arginine succinyltransferase pathway was examined in representative strains of Pseudomonas and related bacteria able to use arginine as the sole carbon and nitrogen source for growth. The arginine succinyltransferase pathway was induced in arginine-grown cells. The accumulation of succinylornithine following in vivo inhibition of succinylornithine transaminase activity by aminooxyacetic acid showed that this pathway is responsible for the dissimilation of the carbon skeleton of arginine. Catabolism of citrulline as a carbon source was restricted to relatively few of the organisms tested. In P. putida, P. cepacia and P. indigofera, ornithine was the main product of citrulline degradation. In most strains which possessed the arginine succinyltransferase pathway, the first step of ornithine utilization as a carbon source was the conversion of ornithine into succinylornithine through an ornithine succinyltransferase. However P. cepacia and P. putida used ornithine by a pathway which proceeded via proline as an intermediate and involved an ornithine cyclase activity.