Metabolism of thioctic acid in algae.

Thioctic acid labeled with sulfur-35 has been p repa red and i t s metabol ism b y algae has been studied. It i s converted by the algae into a number of f o r m s , all of which upon hydrolysis yield either the disulfide o r i t s sulfoxide. One of these constituted the major portion of the labeled ma te r i a l in the chlorop1;~sts . Aerobic metabolism for some minutes i s required to produce this form. P re l imina ry studies of the chemical nature of this fo rm suggest i t to be e s t e r if ied on the carboxyl group with a moiety of very high lipid solubility. METABOLISM O F THIOCTIC ACID IN ALGAEa: Hans Grisebach, "* R. C. Ful le r , *** and M. Calvin Department of. Chemistry and Radiation Laboratory University of California, Berkeley 4, California