DISTRIBUTION OF HEAT-LABILE AND HEAT-STABLE INORGANIC PYROPHOSPHATASES AMONG SOME BACTERIA

Abstract

Significant biochemical differences were found in the inorganic pyrophosphatases from different bacteria. All of the Gram-positive sporeforming rods tested possessed a constitutive, heat-labile enzyme, and all of the Gram-negative rods tested possessed a constitutive, heat-stable enzyme. Of the enzymes from the Gram-positive cocci studied, the enzymes from two species of the genus Streptococcus were constitutive and heat labile, the enzyme from Micrococcus lysodeikticus was inducible and heat stable, and that from Staphylococcus aureus was inducible and heat labile. The enzyme from Mycobacterium phlei, the only acid-fast organism studied, was constitutive and heat labile.