Purine and glycine metabolism by purinolytic clostridia

Cell extracts of Clostridium acidiurici, C. cylindrosporum, and C. purinolyticum converted purine, hypoxanthine, 2-hydroxypurine, 6,8-dihydroxypurine, and uric acid into xanthine by the shortest possible route. Adenine was transformed to xanthine only by C. purinolyticum, whereas the other two species formed 6-amino-8-hydroxypurine, which was neither deaminated nor hydroxylated further. 8-Hydroxypurine was formed from purine by all three species. Xanthine dehydrogenase activity was constitutively expressed by C. purinolyticum. Due to the lability of the enzyme activity, comparative studies could not be done with a purified preparation. All enzymes reported to be involved in formiminoglycine metabolism of C. acidiurici and C. cylindrosporum were present in C. purinolyticum. However, glycine was reduced directly to acetate in all three species, as indicated by radiochemical data and by the detection of glycine reductase in cell extracts of C. cylindrosporum and C. purinolyticum. The expression of glycine reductase and the high ratio of glycine fermented to uric acid present points to an energetic advantage for the glycine reductase system, which is expressed when selenium compounds are added to the growth media.