Adaptation to phenylacetamide as a growth substrate by an acetanilide-utilizing mutant of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Mutants able to utilize phenylacetamide as sole nitrogen source were isolated from the acetanilide (N-phenylacetamide) - utilizing Pseudomonas aeruginosa mutant strain A13 and from its parent strain L 10. Growth properties of the mutants (Ph strains) on amide media and the physicochemical properties of their amidases in cell free extracts indicated that their phenylacetamidase activities were attributable to alterations in their amidases. Differences in amide hydrolase specificities between the AI3- and the L 10-Ph mutants were observed. The AI3 group had a high level of activity towards 4-nitrophenylacetamide, activity towards phenylacetyl-4-nitroaniline but, unlike strain AI3, no activity towards acetyl-4-nitroaniline; the L 10 group had a low activity towards 4-nitrophenylacetamide, no activity towards phenylacetyl-4-nitroaniline but retained the low level of activity towards acetyl-4-nitroaniline exhibited by strain L 10. Confirmation of the association between these altered specificities and alterations in amidases was obtained from analysis of the properties of phenylacetamidases purified from an AI3-Ph mutant (pH 5) and an L 10-Ph mutant (Ph14). The original mutation in the amidase gene of strain AI3 appeared responsible for the differences between the two groups of Ph mutants and the binding interactions with acetanilide that it determined were eliminated in AI3-Ph mutants.