Properties of P503 in Escherichia coli
The pigment (believed to be a tetrahydroporphyin) which appears, transiently, at 503 nm (P503) in the difference spectrum of intact cells of Escherichia coli B did not accumulate in cultures grown in medium supplemented with L-methionine. Accumulation of P503 was not prevented by structural analogues of L-methionine, nor by a mixture of natural amino acids excluding L-methionine. A methionine-requiring mutant of E. coli K-12 lacked P503 when grown in the presence of L-methionine, but P503 was present if D,L-ethionine was substituted for L-methionine in the growth medium. When L-methionine was added to air-oxidized cells which had been grown on minimal (glucose–salts) medium, the spectrum of P503 was produced specifically and rapidly. This effect of L-methionine in non-proliferating cells together with the inhibition by L-methionine of P503 accumulation in growing cultures may result from the stimulation of coproporphyrinogenase by methionine. The data indicate that P503 is an early intermediate in the conversion of coproporphyrinogen III to protoporphyrin IX rather than an intermediate in the porphyrin synthesis "by-pass' to coproporphyrin III.