[Relation of proteolytic activity to the ability to assimilate higher n-alkanes in Pseudomonas denitrificans]

A correlation between proteolytic activity and the ability to assimilate higher n-alkanes was found while studying proteolysis of gelatin by 284 paraffin-negative mutants of Pseudomonas denitrificans. The mutants were produced by a paraffin-positive strain capable of gelatin proteolytis, but not growing on glucose. If assimilation of the oxidized derivatives of higher n-alkanes, viz. alcohols and aldehydes, is interfered with at a genetical level, the percentage of mutants possessing extracellular proteolytic activity decreases (44 per cent of the mutants have lost the activity) whereas the percentage of mutants capable of glucose assimilation increases. Proteolytis of gelatin can be used as a test for a preliminary selection of strains to be employed in industrial synthesis of the oxidized derivatives of higher n-alkanes, as well as in the control of stability and homogeneity of a population under industrial conditions.