Abstract
PREVIOUS reports from this laboratory have established tryptophan as the dietary precursor of 5-hydroxytryptamine1. The demonstration of the widespread occurrence of a specific decarboxylase for 5-hydroxytryptophan2 suggested that this hitherto unknown amino-acid was the intermediate, and that tryptophan was hydroxylated to 5-hydroxytryptophan in a manner analogous to the hydroxylation of phenylalanine to tyrosine. Although experiments with carbon-14 tryptophan resulted in slight labelling of added carrier 5-hydroxytryptophan, the conversion in mammalian and invertebrate tissues was too small for definite identification. The recent identification of violacein, the pigment of Chromobacterium violaceum, as a 5-hydroxyindole derivative3 led us to investigate the metabolism of tryptophan by this organism.
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References
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Udenfriend, S., Weissbach, H., and Clark, C. T., J. Biol. Chem. (in the press).
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MITOMA, C., WEISSBACH, H. & UDENFRIEND, S. Formation of 5-Hydroxytryptophan from Tryptophan by Chromobacterium violaceum . Nature 175, 994–995 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1038/175994a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/175994a0
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