Cytochrome system in cultivated Mycobacterium lepraemurium.

The respiratory pigments of cell suspensions of Mycobacterium lepraemurium cultivated on Ogawa egg-yolk medium were investigated spectrophotometrically. The results obtained showed that whole cell suspensions of both Kumato and Hawaiian strains contained flavins, cytochromes of the a2 and b type, as well as a CO-binding pigment similar to cytochrome o. The whole cell suspensions of M. lepraemurium did not show detectable quantities of c type cytochrome. However, cytochrome c was present in small amounts, and its presence became evident in the dithionite-reduced minus oxidized difference spectra of pyridine haemochromogens prepared from in vitro grown cells of M. lepraemurium.