The Production of Carotenoid Pigments from Mineral Oil by Bacteria.

During the course of studies of the utilization of petroleum products by microorganisms, several Mycobacterium cultures were isolated which grew well in a mineral salts medium containing mineral oi,2 and as a result of their metabolism, "oil-soluble" pigments were produced which colored the oil yellow or orange. Since previous investigators have not described the production of "oil-soluble" pigments by hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria, a study was made to isolate and characterize the pigments. The ability of Mycobacterium species, such as M. lacticola, to utilize hydrocarbons and petroleum products in their metabolism has been substantiated by the work of Sohngen (1913), Wagner (1914), Buittner (1926), Haag (1926, 1927), and Jensen (1934). The importance of this microbial activity in nature, particularly in the breakdown of hydrocarbons, is attested by the universal distribution of these agents in soils and water, since these are the sources of most cultures studied by various workers. Their presence has also been detected by Haas, Yantzi and Bushnell (1941) in oil-field sedimentation ponds and water bottoms of various storage tanks containing petroleum products. Their ubiquity is emphasized further by a recent publication by ZoBell, Grant and Haas (1943) which describes their presence in the sea and marine sediments. Studies by Ingraham and Bauman (1934) with various organisms revealed that Mycobacterium and related species have a particularly high carotene content. Cryptoxanthin, a-carotene, ,8-carotene, e-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin, azafrin and dehydro-j-carotene (leprotin) are examples of the carotenoid pigments reported by the following workers as having been produced by various Mycobacterium species [Ingraham and Steenbock (1935), Chargaff and Lederer (1935) and Takeda and Ohta (1939) ]. These investigations were made with bacteria grown on fairly complex media containing peptones and other organic compounds such as glycerol and glucose.