Production of l-Glutamic Acid from Hydrocarbon by Penicillin-resistant Mutants of Corynebacterium hydrocarboclastus

Penicillin-resistant mutants were derived from Corynebacterium hydrocarboclastus R-7. One of them produced 84 g/liter of l-glutamic acid from hydrocarbon, though its parent strain produced 26 g/liter.

The penicillin-resistant mutant had stronger activities of substrate consumption and oxygen absorption than the parent strain, and this was one of the reasons for the accumulation of a larger quantity of l-glutamic acid.

The interacellular content of phosphatidyl inositol mannoside (P.I.M) was related to the glutamate productivity, and the higher glutamate productivity of the penicillin-resistant mutant was supposed to be related to the remarkable diminution in the content of P.I.M.