Suppression of nitrate utilization by ammonium and its relationship to chloramphenicol production in Streptomyces venezuelae

Abstract

Cultures of Streptomyces venezuelae grown in a medium containing glucose with mixtures of ammonium and nitrate as the nitrogen source produced chloramphenicol in a distinct idiophase that followed biomass accumulation. Analysis of fermentation broths showed that ammonium and nitrate were taken up consecutively by the organism. Measurements of nitrate reductase in the mycelium established that the enzyme was constitutive and that its specific activity did not increase during the period when ammonium was exhausted from the medium and nitrate was assimilated. The enzyme was neither repressed nor inhibited by ammonium. Production of chloramphenicol was also delayed until ammonium had been consumed and remained slow until subsequent depletion of nitrate. Arylamine synthetase, the initial enzyme in the pathway of antibiotic biosynthesis, showed no marked change in specific activity during utilization of the two nitrogen sources. The result suggests that the mechanism causing preferential utilization of ammonium does not simultaneously control the onset of chloramphenicol biosynthesis.