DL-Lysine monohydrochloride

An intracellular membrane-free, trypsinlike protease was isolated from cells of Bacteroides gingivalis 381. The protease was extracted from the cells by ultrasonic treatment and was purified about 250-fold with a recovery of 2% by sequential procedures. The properties of the protease were as follows: its optimal pH was 8.5; its activity was almost completely lost on incubation at 50 degrees C for 15 min; its activity was inhibited by diisopropylfluorophosphate, p-toluenesulfonyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone hydrochloride, leupeptin, Mn2+, Cu2+, and Zn2+; it hydrolyzed casein, azocasein, N-alpha-benzoyl-DL-arginine-p-nitroanilide (BAPNA), bovine serum albumin, azocoll, and gelatin, but not N-alpha-benzoyl-DL-lysine-p-nitroanilide or human serum immunoglobulin A; its molecular weight was estimated as 45,000 by gel filtration and 50,000 by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; and its Km values for azocasein and BAPNA were 1.11% and 0.19 mM, respectively.

The complexes of L-arginine and DL-lysine with pimelic acid are made up of singly positively charged zwitterionic amino acid cations and doubly negatively charged pimelate ions in a 2:1 ratio. In both structures, the amino acid molecules form twofold symmetric or centrosymmetric pairs that are stabilized by hydrogen bonds involving alpha-amino and alpha-carboxylate groups. In the L-arginine complex, these pairs form columns along the shortest cell dimension, stabilized by intermolecular hydrogen bonds involving alpha-amino and alpha-carboxylate groups. The columns are connected by hydrogen bonds and water bridges to give rise to an amino acid layer. Adjacent layers are then connected by pimelate ions. Unlike molecular ions aggregate into alternating distinct layers in the DL-lysine complex. In the amino acid layer, hydrogen-bonded lysinium dimers related by a glide plane are connected by hydrogen bonds involving alpha-amino and alpha-carboxylate groups into head-to-tail sequences. Interestingly, the aggregation pattern observed in L-arginine hemipimelate monohydrate is very similar to those in DL-arginine formate dihydrate, DL-arginine acetate monohydrate and L-arginine hemiglutarate monohydrate. Similarly, the aggregation of amino acid molecules is very similar in DL-lysine hemipimelate 0.53-hydrate, DL-lysine formate and DL-lysine hydrochloride. The complexes thus demonstrate how, in related structures, the effects of a change in composition, and sometimes even those of reversal in chirality, can be accommodated by minor adjustments in essentially the same aggregation pattern. It also transpires that the conformation of the argininium ion is the same in the four argininium complexes; the same is true about the conformation of the lysinium ion in the three lysinium complexes. This result indicates a relation between, and mutual dependence of, conformation and aggregation.

Nutritional studies were performed on nine Bacteroides strains, by use of the methodology and media of anaerobic rumen microbiology. Ristella perfoetens CCI required l-arginine hydrochloride, l-tryptophan, l-leucine, l-histidine hydrochloride, l-cysteine hydrochloride, dl-valine, dl-tyrosine, and the vitamin calcium-d-pantothenate, since scant turbidity developed in media without these nutrients. R. perfoetens was stimulated by glycine, dl-lysine hydrochloride, dl-isoleucine, l-proline, l-glutamic acid, dl-alanine, dl-phenylalanine, dl-methionine, and the vitamins nicotinamide and p-aminobenzoic acid, since maximal turbidity developed more slowly in media without these nutrients than in complete medium. Medium A-23, which was devised for R. perfoetens, contained salts, 0.0002% nicotinamide and calcium d-pantothenate, 0.00001% p-aminobenzoic acid, 0.044% l-tryptophan, 0.09% l-glutamic acid, and 0.1% of the other 13 amino acids listed above. Zuberella clostridiformis and seven strains of R. pseudoinsolita did not require vitamins, and showed no absolute requirement for any one amino acid. Various strains produced maximal turbidity more slowly in media deficient in l-proline, glycine, l-glutamic acid, dl-serine, l-histidine hydrochloride, dl-alanine, or l-cysteine hydrochloride, than in complete medium. These eight strains grew optimally in medium A-23 plus 0.1% dl-serine but without vitamins.