The production of acetylmethylcarbinol by Aerobacter from a variety of carbon sources in a synthetic medium.

Although considerable work has been done on the formation of acetylmethylcarbinol by Aerobacter, except for the work of Koser (1918), O'Meara (1931), and Reynolds and Werkman (1937a,b), those studies employing cultures of growing cells were done in complex, chemically undefined media which tend to obscure the underlying chemical reaction. In the present study, intact, washed Aerobacter cells were used as the inoculum to determine acetylmethylcarbinol formation from a variety of carbohydrates, sugar alcohols, and related compounds, each of which was the sole carbon source in a synthetic, chemically defined medium.