activityThe selected isolates were screened for ACCd activity. Thirty-five mL of King’s B medium (King et al. 1954) was inoculated with0.2 mL of the 48 h starter culture of each isolate. After 24 h the cellsharvested by centrifugation (3000 × g, 10 min, 7◦C) were washed3 times with 10 mL of DF medium without nitrogen. Then, the cellpellet in each Falcon tube (50 mL) was resuspended in 20 mL of DFmedium supplemented with 3 mM ACC. All of the bacteria weregrown aerobically (150 rev min−1, 5 amplitude) at 26 ± 2◦C for 4days. Growth of isolates was monitored by measure the opticaldensity (OD) of the cultures at 600 nm. Aliquots 5 mL of bacterialcultures were harvested daily and centrifuged under the conditionsmentioned above. Cell pellets washing twice with 3 mL of 0.1 MTris–HCl pH 7.6 were stored at −20◦C. The activity of ACC deami-nase was determined by monitoring the amount of -ketobutyrate(-KB) generated by the enzymatic hydrolysis of ACC, in the celllysates prepared by toluene treatment, as described in detail byPenrose and Glick (2003). The protein concentrations also in thecell extracts was determined using the method of Bradford (1976)with bovine serum albumin as a standard.