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SUMMARY: Four pseudomonad isolates which could use uric acid aerobically as a sole C, N and energy source were isolated from poultry house deep-litter, droppings, and nearby soil. Organisms harvested from media containing uric acid can degrade uric acid completely, with the formation of CO, and NH,. Allantoin, allantoic, glyoxylic and formic acids were completely oxidized. The existence of micro-organisms able to decompose uric acid aerobically has long been known (see Stapp, 1920), but relatively little work has been re- ported on the biochemical pathways of this decomposition. The excrement of chickens contains a relatively large amount of uric acid (c. 5 yo of the dry weight, depending somewhat on the diet; information kindly supplied by Dr. J. Tinsley). In the deep-litter method of poultry husbandry the uric acid of the droppings rapidly disappears from the litter and there is often a marked evolution of ammonia. It seemed likely therefore that established deep-litter beds in poultry houses might well be a habitat from which micro-organisms capable of decomposing uric acid could easily be obtained; this proved to be so. It was decided to seek aerobic organisms which could use uric acid aero- bically as sole source of carbon, nitrogen and energy in order to obtain micro- organisms with a rich array of enzymes capable of affecting uric acid. Elective cultures yielded bacteria which grew aerobically on a uric acid +mineral salts medium. The decomposition of uric acid by these organisms was then explored by examining their 0, uptake with uric acid and various related compounds which have been implicated in biological degradation of uric acid, as sub- strates. These compounds are shown in Fig. 1, which indicates a pathway of uric acid decomposition compatible with the evidence so far obtained with the pseudomonads used in the present work. The existence of enzymes which catalyse some of the chemical steps in the pathway shown in Fig. 1 is well known (see Laskowski, 1951), one or more of these enzymes having been observed in many different forms of life. The pseudomonads isolated in the present work are able to carry the aerobic degradation of uric acid the whole way to carbon dioxide and ammonia. This paper reports a preliminary ex- amination of their metabolism of uric acid.

The Aerobic Breakdown of Uric Acid by Certain Pseudomonads