Selection of Escherichia coli mutants lacking glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase or gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrogenase

Glucose is metabolized in Escherichia coli chiefly via the phosphoglucose isomerase reaction; mutants lacking that enzyme grow slowly on glucose by using the hexose monophosphate shunt. When such a strain is further mutated so as to yield strains unable to grow at all on glucose or on glucose-6-phosphate, the secondary strains are found to lack also activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The double mutants can be transduced back to glucose positivity; one class of transductants has normal phosphoglucose isomerase activity but no glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. An analogous scheme has been used to select mutants lacking gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Here the primary mutant lacks gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrase (an enzyme of the Enter-Doudoroff pathway) and grows slowly on gluconate; gluconate-negative mutants are selected from it. These mutants, lacking the nicotinamide dinucleotide phosphate-linked glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase or gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, grow on glucose at rates similar to the wild type. Thus, these enzymes are not essential for glucose metabolism in E. coli.

Regulation and function of lactate oxidation in Streptococcus faecium

Regulation of the synthesis and function of an l(+)-specific lactate-oxidizing enzyme system found in a homofermentative Streptococcus was investigated. With the exception of fructose, aerobic growth at the expense of a variety of substrates resulted in the formation of a lactate oxidation system; anaerobic growth resulted in a marked reduction or complete loss of lactate-oxidizing activity. Growth on fructose, under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, invariably produced a decrease in the activity of the lactate oxidation system. A negative control, activated by an early intermediate product of glycolysis, appeared to be responsible for repression of the lactate-oxidizing enzyme(s). The enzyme system confers upon the organism the ability to grow aerobically at the expense of l(+)-lactic acid.

Boron in plants: a biochemical role

Boron, as borate, appears to have a role in partitioning metabolism between the glycolytic and pentose-shunt pathways. This effect results from the association of borate with 6-phosphogluconic acid, forming a virtual substrate that inhibits the action of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase. In the absence of borate, the inhibition of the enzyme is released, and excess phenolic acids are formed. These acids also associate strongly with borate and thus develop an autocatalytic system for production of excess phenolic acids which cause necrosis of tissue and eventual death of the plant.

Computer simulation of fermentation systems

Results of batch fermentation of gluconic acid by Pseudomonas ovalis were graphically analyzed to obtain a kinetic model to represent the data. Since gluconic acid was produced by the hydrolysis of a lactone intermediate, the model was necessarily represented by a set of kinetic equations. A computer simulation technique involving the use of the MIDAS program was developed to solve the system of nonlinear equations and to check the appropriateness of the model. Since the maximal specific growth rate and the rate constant for the production of the lactone intermediate varied with time, function generators were used to simulate these system parameters. The merit of using the MIDAS program was considered in relation to analysis and model testing in microbiological processes of similar types.

Glucose and gluconate metabolism in an Escherichia coli mutant lacking phosphoglucose isomerase

A single gene mutant lacking phosphoglucose isomerase (pgi) was selected after ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenesis of Escherichia coli strain K-10. Enzyme assays revealed no pgi activity in the mutant, whereas levels of glucokinase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrogenase were similar in parent and mutant. The amount of glucose released by acid hydrolysis of the mutant cells after growth on gluconate was less than 2% that released from parent cells; when grown in the presence of glucose, mutant and parent cells contained the same amount of glucose residues. The mutant grew on glucose one-third as fast as the parent; it also grew much slower than the parent on galactose, maltose, and lactose. On fructose, gluconate, and other carbon sources, growth was almost normal. In both parent and mutant, gluconokinase and gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrase were present during growth on gluconate but not during growth on glucose. Assay and degradation of alanine from protein hydrolysates after growth on glucose-1-(14)C and gluconate-1-(14)C showed that in the parent strain glucose was metabolized by the glycolytic path and the hexose monophosphate shunt. Gluconate was metabolized by the Entner-Doudoroff path and the hexose monophosphate shunt. The mutant used glucose chiefly by the shunt, but may also have used the Entner-Doudoroff path to a limited extent.

Glucose and gluconate metabolism in a mutant of Escherichia coli lacking gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrase

A mutant lacking gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrase (the first enzyme of the Entner-Doudoroff pathway) was isolated after ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenesis of Escherichia coli. Other enzymes of gluconate metabolism (gluconokinase, gluconate-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and 2-keto-3-deoxygluconate-6-phosphate aldolase) were present in the mutant. When the mutant was grown on gluconate-1-(14)C, alanine isolated from protein was unlabeled, showing that the dehydrase was absent in vivo and that the sole pathway of gluconate metabolism in the mutant was the hexose monophosphate shunt. The mutant grew on gluconate with a doubling time of 155 min, compared with the parent strain's 56 min. On glucose and fructose it grew with normal doubling times. Thus, in E. coli, the Entner-Doudoroff pathway is used for gluconate metabolism but not for glucose metabolism.

Gluconate metabolism in Escherichia coli

On the basis of information available in the literature, gluconate dissimilation in Escherichia coli is thought to occur via the hexose monophosphate pathway. Evidence is presented in this study that gluconate is catabolized in this organism via an inducible Entner-Doudoroff pathway. This evidence is based on chromatographic examination of end products produced from (14)C-labeled gluconate or glucose, distribution of (14)C in the carbon atoms of pyruvate formed from specifically labeled (14)C-glucose and (14)C-gluconate, and the ability of cell-free extracts to produce pyruvate from 6-phosphogluconate. Degradation of gluconate by an Entner-Doudoroff pathway occurred simultaneously with a glycolytic cleavage of glucose. A relationship between gluconate-induced, Entner-Doudoroff pathway activity and catabolism of glucose in Escherichia coli and other bacterial species is discussed.

The route of ethanol formation in Zymomonas mobilis

1. Enzymic evidence supporting the operation of the Entner-Doudoroff pathway in the anaerobic conversion of glucose into ethanol and carbon dioxide by Zymomonas mobilis is presented. 2. Cell extracts catalysed the formation of equimolar amounts of pyruvate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate from 6-phosphogluconate. Evidence that 3-deoxy-2-oxo-6-phosphogluconate is an intermediate in this conversion was obtained. 3. Cell extracts of the organism contained the following enzymes: glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (active with NAD and NADP), ethanol dehydrogenase (active with NAD), glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (active with NAD), hexokinase, gluconokinase, glucose dehydrogenase and pyruvate decarboxylase. Extracts also catalysed the overall conversion of glycerate 3-phosphate into pyruvate in the presence of ADP. 4. Gluconate dehydrogenase, fructose 1,6-diphosphate aldolase and NAD-NADP transhydrogenase were not detected. 5. It is suggested that NAD is the physiological electron carrier in the balanced oxidation-reduction involved in ethanol formation.

THE METABOLISM OF 2-KETO-D-GLUCONATE BY RESTING CELLS OF LEUCONOSTOC MESENTEROIDES

The rate of utilization of 2-keto-D-gluconate and the accumulation of pentulose by resting cells of Leuconostoc mesenteroides is affected markedly by pH, Below pH 5, 2-keto-D-gluconate is utilized slowly and pentulose accumulates in the fermentation medium. The pentulose was separated by column chromatography and identified as D-xylulose and D-ribulose. The products of the fermentation of 2-keto-D-gluconate by resting cells, in addition to pentulose, are carbon dioxide, acetic acid, and lactic acid, as expected from the studies with growing cultures. The results obtained are unexpected when considered with what is known about the metabolism of 2-keto-D-gluconate by this organism.