Threonine prevents derepression of pyridoxine synthesis in Escherichia coli B.

After 40 min of pyridoxal starvation, pyridoxine phosphate oxidase-less mutants of Escherichia coli B derepressed pyridoxine biosynthesis 13-fold to a rate of 1.7 X 10(-9) mol/h per mg of cells. Threonine at 100 mg/liter prevented this derepression but did not affect the continued synthesis of pyridoxine. Neither serine nor branched-chain amino acids altered the threonine effect.