Production of Guanosine by Psicofuranine and Decoyinine Resistant Mutants of Bacillus subtilis

Growth of Bacillus subtilis AG169 that produced large amounts of xanthosine and guanosine was inhibited by psicofuranine. When AG169 was mutated to resistance against psicofuranine, a mutant, GP–1, which yielded more guanosine was obtained. Psicofuranine did not inhibit growth of GP–1 any more. The guanosine 5′-monophosphate (GMP) synthetase activities were then assayed. In GP–1, the specific activity decreased about half, the complete loss of repression by GMP was found, and the inhibition by GMP was slightly loosed, when compared with those of AG169.

Furthermore, as growth of GP–1 was strongly inhibited by decoyinine, decoyinine resistant mutants were derived from GP–1. Of these mutants, two strains, MG–1 and MG–4, were resistant to decoyinine completely and showed the exclusive accumulation of guanosine in high yields, i.e. 16.0 and 15.5 g of guanosine per liter with weight yields of 20.0 and 19.4% of consumed sugar, respectively. GMP synthetase activity of MG–1 increased remarkably in comparison with that of GP–1 or AG169, and the inhibitions by GMP, psicofuranine and decoyinine were completely released in MG–1. Namely, the psicofuranine and decoyinine resistances seemed to cause mainly variations of GMP synthetase, and as results, the conversion of xanthosine 5′-monophosphate (XMP) to GMP proceeded more smoothly, and a larger amount of guanosine was accumulated.