On the Specificity of Bacterium-Decarboxylase.

Abstract

Summary

The reported experiments show that the ability of E. coli to decarboxylate histidine and its derivatives is highly specific, since the acylation of the amino group hinders this process. We cannot decide however whether or not the E. coli are able to convert peptides into “peptamines” by decarboxylation. If a free amino group should be necessary also in peptides, then such amino group could be provided not only by histidine but also by peptides containing histidine units with free carboxyl groups.