274 
Journal oj Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXX, No. 6 
showing that this organism will also 
prefer glutamic acid as a source of 
energy, even in the presence of dextrose. 
Table V contains only some con¬ 
firmatory data. Owing to the alkaline 
reaction, the fungi were soon injured in 
their development, in the absence of 
dextrose, by the rapidly accumulating 
ammonia. The Actinomyces and the 
bacteria, however, that can stand a 
higher alkalinity than the fungi, de¬ 
composed a great deal of the glutamic 
acid, even in the 1.4 per cent concentra¬ 
tion, with results similar to those ob¬ 
tained in the previous experiment. 
DECOMPOSITION OF ASPARAGINE 
The chemical formula for asparagine is 
NH 2 .C0.CH 2 .CH(NH 2 )C00H( + H 2 0); 
it contains 18.68 per cent nitrogen and 
32 per cent carbon, the ratio of carbon 
to nitrogen being 1.7, very similar to 
glycocoll. However, the two NH 2 
groups in the asparagine molecule are 
in different positions, one as an amino 
and the other as an amide group. The 
various references in the literature on 
the decomposition of asparagine tend 
to indicate that the splitting off of 
these two groups and their transfor¬ 
mation into ammonia take place with 
unequal rapidity. 
The asparagine is first changed to 
aspartic acid and ammonia, then to 
succinic acid; the aspartic acid may 
also change to acetic acid: 
NH 2 .CO.CH 2 .CH(NH 2 )COOH + 
H 2 0 = H00C.CH 2 .CH(NH 2 )C00H 
+nh 3 
HOOC.CH 2 .CH(NH 2 )COOH 
(CH 2 COOH) 2 +NH 3 
(CH 2 COOH) 2 -f 70 = 4 C0 2 + 3H 2 0 
Nawiasky (18) found that B. proteus 
reduces, in 24 hours, almost all the 
asparagine to aspartic acid and am¬ 
monia. The aspartic acid changes, 
at the same time, to succinic or acetic 
acids and ammonia. 
In our own experiments (Table VI), 
Zygorhynchus decomposed, in 9 days, 
in the absence of dextrose, 17.5 mg. 
amino nitrogen out of a total of 90.9 
mg.; however, there were 69.56 mg. of 
ammonia nitrogen in the medium, 
showing that the largest amount of 
ammonia originates from the amide 
group. The amount of growth pro¬ 
duced by both fungi is very small, in 
comparison with the amount of am¬ 
monia formed and is more comparable 
with the decrease in the amino acid 
content. This points to two things: 
(1) The amide group is split off more 
readily than the amino group (the 
latter only as far as the aspartic acid 
is decomposed as a source of energy); 
(2) the rapid change in reaction to 
alkalinity, due to the accumulation of 
ammonia, represses the further de¬ 
velopment of the fungi and the amount 
of growth as well as amino acid de¬ 
composed is limited. The amount of 
available carbon in the asparagine 
molecule is so small, in comparison 
with the available nitrogen, that only 
a small amount of growth may be 
formed. The Actinomyces produced 
41 mg. of growth, with a compara¬ 
tively small amount of amino nitrogen 
decomposed and ammonia formed, in 
the absence of dextrose. The largest 
amount of ammonia was produced by 
the Bad. fluorescens : 86.80 mg. of 
ammonia nitrogen was found in the 
medium after 3 days, while only 21.0 
mg. of amino nitrogen had been 
decomposed. The fact that large 
amounts of ammonia are formed in 
the medium even in the presence of 
dextrose indicates that, although am¬ 
monia formation from the amino acid 
is a direct result of metabolism, the 
formation of ammonia from an amide 
may be primarily a result of enzyme 
action, regardless of whether the 
ammonia is needed by the organism. 
This is further substantiated by the 
fact that the amount of ammonia 
rapidly increases with age of culture, 
independent of the actual carbon 
assimilation. 
The addition of dextrose tends to 
keep down the amount of ammonia 
accumulated in the medium, especially 
in the case of the fungi as a result 
of the probable reassimilation of the 
ammonia as long as there is available 
energy. However, as soon as the 
energy is used up, the ammonia begins 
to accumulate rapidly. This is clearly 
seen in the case of the Actinomyces, 
for example. After 9 days’ incuba¬ 
tion, only 770 mg. of dextrose was 
decomposed, 176.5 mg. of mycelium 
was resynthesized, and only 5.76 mg. 
ammonia were found in the medium. 
After 22 days, the duplicate cultures 
showed different results; one made 
further growth and the other did not 
develop any further than at the first 
period of analysis. It is interesting to 
note that the culture containing some 
undecomposed dextrose, after 22 days, 
showed about the same relationship 
in growth, reaction, decomposition of 
amino nitrogen and ammonia forma¬ 
tion as the 9-day-old culture. In 
the second flask, however, where all 
the dextrose had disappeared, the 
decomposition of the amino acid 
advanced rapidly, accompanied by 
ammonia accumulation and change in 
reaction. The Actinomyces seemed to 
