Regulation of glucose and protein syntheses by Micrococcus luteus during the fermentation of a Nigerian rice, <i>Oryza sativa</i> variety “Igbimo”

Abstract

Micrococcus luteus synthesises glucose and protein during the fermentation of a Nigerian rice. To regulate the formation of these substances, mutation was carried out with an alkylating agent: ethylmethyl sulphonate (EMS). Screening the mutants generated for the levels of the traits expressed, four major groups were obtained. These are poor, moderate, good and super producers of either glucose or protein. They produced the properties at 0 - 1.00, 1.01 to 1.99 (moderate) and 2.0 to 2.99 (good) and 3.0 and above (super) mg.mL^–1 of each substance. The classes were made up of 37, 40, 20 and 3 mutants for glucose production and 13, 35, 40 and 12 mutants for protein synthesis. The wild strain bacterium made 0.86 mg.mL^–1 glucose and 1.2 mg.mL^–1 protein describing the M. luteus as poor glucose maker and moderate protein producer. It was also noticed that the mutation caused some variants (25%) to form more glucose than protein; the remaining 75% of the population are made up of two sets viz: mutants having better ability to synthesise protein at higher concentrations than glucose and those that formed about the same amounts of the substances. It thus follows that the glucose and protein productions in M. luteus are genetically based and can be regulated by genetic manipulation.