Variation of antimetabolite sensitivity with different carbon sources inBacillus subtilis

The susceptibility ofBacillus subtilis to amino acid analogues was found to be markedly influenced by the carbon source used in the test media. Thialysine inhibited the bacterium with a greater number of carbon sources than the other two analogues tested. 5-Hydroxylysine was inhibitory with glycerol, lactose,D-xylose,L-arabinose and soluble starch while ethionine showed toxicity with lactose,D-xylose andL-arabinose. None of these analogues were toxic at the levels tested whenD-galactose was used as carbon source. The bacterium was not susceptible to thialysine with glycerol, to 5-hydroxylysine withL-arabinose and to ethionine with lactose.