Accumulation of α-Keto Acids as Essential Components in Cyanide Assimilation by Pseudomonas fluorescens NCIMB 11764

Pyruvate (Pyr) and α-ketoglutarate (αKg) accumulated when cells of Pseudomonas fluorescens NCIMB 11764 were cultivated on growth-limiting amounts of ammonia or cyanide and were shown to be responsible for the nonenzymatic removal of cyanide from culture fluids as previously reported (J.-L. Chen and D. A. Kunz, FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 156:61–67, 1997). The accumulation of keto acids in the medium paralleled the increase in cyanide-removing activity, with maximal activity (760 μmol of cyanide removed min⁻¹ ml of culture fluid⁻¹) being recovered after 72 h of cultivation, at which time the keto acid concentration was 23 mM. The reaction products that formed between the biologically formed keto acids and cyanide were unambiguously identified as the corresponding cyanohydrins by ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Both the Pyr and α-Kg cyanohydrins were further metabolized by cell extracts and served also as nitrogenous growth substrates. Radiotracer experiments showed that CO₂ (and NH₃) were formed as enzymatic conversion products, with the keto acid being regenerated as a coproduct. Evidence that the enzyme responsible for cyanohydrin conversion is cyanide oxygenase, which was shown previously to be required for cyanide utilization, is based on results showing that (i) conversion occurred only when extracts were induced for the enzyme, (ii) conversion was oxygen and reduced-pyridine nucleotide dependent, and (iii) a mutant strain defective in the enzyme was unable to grow when it was provided with the cyanohydrins as a growth substrate. Pyr and αKg were further shown to protect cells from cyanide poisoning, and excretion of the two was directly linked to utilization of cyanide as a growth substrate. The results provide the basis for a new mechanism of cyanide detoxification and assimilation in which keto acids play an essential role.