Pfizer Handbook of Microbial Metabolites 458 



Leland A. Underkofler and Richard J. Hickey, "Industrial 

 Fermentations," Chemical Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 

 1954 Vol. II, J. M. VanLanen, Production of vitamins other 

 than riboflavin, chap. 6, pp. 207-8. 



932 Factor B is vitamin Bjo from which the nucleotide 



moiety has been removed. It has been isolated from 

 fermentations, from rumen contents, from sev^^age, and 

 it can be prepared chemically from vitamin B^o. 



E. Lester Smith, "Vitamin B12," John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 

 New York, 1960, 196 pp. (A monograph) 



This monograph also explains the new nomenclature 

 system for B^o and related compounds. 



Other intermediates in the biosynthesis of vitamin B12 

 by Propionibacterium shermanii have been detected: 



Konrad Bernhauer, Elisabeth Becher, Gisela Gross and 

 Georg Wilharm, Biochem. Z. 332 562 (1960). 



K. Bernhauer, Hw. Dellweg, W. Friedrich, G. Gross, F. 

 Wagner and P. Zeller, Helv. Chim. Acta 43 693 (1960). 



K. Bernhauer, F. Wagner and P. Zeller, ibid. 43 696 (I960). 



g. INDOLES 



The indole nucleus occurs in microorganisms in such 

 forms as tryptophan, one of the less abundant amino 

 acids, in bacterial pigments such as violacein and indigo 

 and in amines from higher fungi such as serotonin and 

 psilocybin, which have strong physiological effects in 

 higher animals. The indole nucleus is incorporated also 

 into bizarre fungal metaboUtes such as echinulin and 

 gliotoxin, into the mushroom poisons, such as phalloidin, 

 and into the ergot alkaloids listed in the following section. 



One route to indole and to tryptophan was outlined in 

 the section on amino acids. This is the pathway discov- 

 ered by Yanofsky and confirmed and elaborated in his and 

 other laboratories.^ Anthranilic acid from the shikimic 

 acid route combines with ribose phosphate, cyclization oc- 

 curs to form the pyrrole ring, a triose phosphate is elimi- 



^ C. Yanofsky, Biochim. et Biophys. Acta 16 594 (1955); idem., 

 J. Biol. Chem. 223 171 (1956); F. Gibson, M. Jones and H. Taltscher, 

 Biochem. J. 64 132 (1956); P. A. Trudinger, ibid. 62 480 (1956); 

 F. Lingens and H. Hellmann, ATigew. Chem. 69 97 (1957); L. W. 

 Parks and H. C. Douglas, Biochim. et Biophijs. Acta 23 207 (1957); 

 J. Gots and S. Ross, ibid., 24 429 (1957); C. Yanofsky and M. Rach- 

 meier, ibid. 28 640 (1958). 



