[Arginine metabolism in Citrobacter].

The authors studied ways of utilization of arginine and of the products of its metabolism (ornithine, agmatine, and urea) in the microoganisms of Citrobacter genus. Arginine- and ornithine-decarboxylase activity was revealed by spectrophotometric method of decarboxylation products in the form of dinitrophenyl-derivatives in a small number of strains. Almost all the strains studied demonstrated a sufficiently high agmatine-ureohydrolase reaction. Arginase was constantly revealed. These microbes were capable of urea utilization in prolonged incubation.