Microbial models of mammalian metabolism. Aromatic hydroxylation.

The potential for selected microorganisms to hydroxylate aromatic substrates in a manner analogous to mammalian systems has been studied. Based on literature precedence and prior experience, 11 microorganisms were chosen from among a variety of genera of fungi and bacterial species and were incubated with 13 model compounds including acetanilide, acronycine, aniline, anisole, benzene, benzoic acid, biphenyl, chlorobenzene, coumarin, naphthalene, nitrobenzene, trans -stilbene, and toluene. In most instances, the microbial model system yielded patterns of phenolic metabolites similar to those reported with cytochrome P 450 monooxygenases of hepatic microsomes and/or in vivo mammalian systems. Furthermore, N -acetylation of aniline, N -deacetylation of acetanilide, and O -demethylation of anisole were found with certain organisms. The potential usefulness of microbial systems for the synthesis of preparative quantities of mammalian metabolites of foreign organic compounds is discussed.