Summary
When Mycobacterium strain MorG was grown with morpholine as sole source of carbon and nitrogen, enzymes for ethanolamine catabolism (via the ethanolamine-O-phosphate pathway) and glycollate catabolism (via the glycerate pathway) were strongly induced. Almost all morpholine-negative (Mor−) mutants of MorG failed to utilize glycollate as a carbon source and were shown to be effective in one or more enzymes for its metabolism via the glycerate pathway. Growth of MorG with morpholine also induced the jacoby and Fredericks pathway for pyrrolidine catabolism, Mor− mutants had invariably lost the ability to grow on pyrrolidine and 2(2-aminoethoxy)acetate was shown to be an intermediate in morpholine catabolism. This indicates that morpholine is initially catabolised by an analogous route to pyrrolidine, producing 2(2-aminoethoxy)acetate which can be oxidatively cleaved to give rise directly to glycollate and indirectly to ethanolamine.
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Swain, A., Waterhouse, K.V., Venables, W.A. et al. Biochemical studies of morpholine catabolism by an environmental mycobacterium. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 35, 110–114 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00180646
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00180646