Comparison of Corynebacterium glutamicum with GABA or glucose as carbon source

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-proteinogenic amino acid and widespread in nature from microorganisms to plants and animals. DNA microarray analysis revealed that the transcription of gabTDP was strongly increased in C. glutamicum wild type grown with GABA and urea compared to the same strain cultivated with glucose and urea. Remarkably, the presence of ammonia partially inhibited growth on GABA, and the reasons for it were also investigated in this study. The aim was to identify genes differentially expressed in Corynebacterium glutamicum during growth with glucose or with GABA as carbon source. For this purpose, C. glutamicum ATCC13032 was cultivated in CGXII medium with K2SO4 (20 mM) instead of (NH4)2SO4, with urea (151mM) and with either glucose or GABA as carbon source (250 mM carbon each ). The cells were harvested in the exponential growth phase at an OD600 of 5.