Role of arginine deiminase in growth of Mycoplasma hominis.

Arginine has been considered as the major energy source of nonglycolytic arginine-utilizing mycoplasmata. When three strains of Mycoplasma arginini, and one strain each of Mycoplasma arthritidis, Mycoplasma fermentans, Mycoplasma gallinarum, Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Mycoplasma hominis were grown in the medium with high arginine concentration (34 mM) compared with low arginine (4 mM), both the protein content of the organisms and the specific activity of arginine deiminase increased. M. fermentans, the one arginine-utilizing species included in the survey which is also glycolytic, showed an increase in protein content but no increase in specific activity of the enzyme. The glycolytic non-arginine-utilizing M. gallisepticum did not show an increase in either parameter. The Km for arginine deiminase from crude cell extracts was 1.66 X 10(-4)M. The enzyme demonstrated a hyperbolic activation curve subject to substrate inhibition and was not affected by the presence of L-histidine. When mycoplasmic protein and arginine deiminase were determined for M. hominis under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, aerobically grown cells exhibited no detectable enzymatic increases until late in log phase. Higher levels of arginine deiminase were observed earlier in the anaerobic growth cycle. The rate of 14CO2 evolution from [guanido-14C]arginine was not altered in arginine-supplemented cells compared with cells grown in low arginine. In addition, CO2 production did not parallel increased arginine deiminase activity. These observations argue that arginine is used only as an alternate energy source in these organisms.