Mutagenic Activity of Autoxidized Linolenic and Linoleic Acid

Isolation of mutants with an enhanced productivity of 7β-(4-carboxybutanamido)-cephalosporanic acid acylase (penicillin amidohydrolase, EC 3.5.1.11) was attempted. A mutant, Ci-36, isolated by a method using glutarylamlide, produced approximately 5-times more acylase than did the parental strain. However, this acylase formation was still dependent on glutaric acid which was previously found to be essential in the case of the wild strain, Pseudomonas SY-77-1. The inducible-acylase formation was found to be firmly associated with the process of cell multiplication. Subsequently, a mutant, GK-16 was derived from Ci-36, which was shown to produce the acylase at maximum level without the addition of glutaric acid. The productivity of GK-16 was 2.4-times higher than that of Ci-36.