Vitamin B(12) in photosynthetic bacteria and methionine synthesis by Rhodopseudomonas spheroides.

1. Assay of some photosynthetic bacteria for vitamin B(12) showed them to be relatively rich in this factor. Rhodopseudomonas spheroides, grown photosynthetically in Co(2+)-supplemented medium, contained about 100mug./g. dry wt. 2. Extracts of wild-type Rps. spheroides methylated homocysteine by a mechanism similar to the cobalamin-dependent pathway present in Escherichia coli. However, no mechanism similar to the cobalamin-independent N(5)-methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine transmethylase of E. coli could be detected in Rps. spheroides. 3. N(5)N(10)-Methylenetetrahydrofolate-reductase activity was found in Rps. spheroides. 4. A methionine-requiring mutant strain of Rps. spheroides (strain 2/33), which does not respond to homocysteine, made the same amount of vitamin B(12) as the parent organism. Extracts did not form methionine from N(5)-methyltetrahydrofolate and homocysteine even in the presence of cofactors shown to be necessary with the parent strain, and it is concluded that the mutant is blocked in the formation of the apoenzyme of a homocysteine-methylating system similar to the vitamin B(12)-dependent one in E. coli.