STUDIES ON RUMEN COLIFORM ORGANISMS: II. UTILIZATION OF ACETATE BY ESCHERICHIA COLI 64 ISOLATED FROM THE RUMEN FLUID OF A COW FED ALFALFA HAY

Abstract

When cells of E. coli 64 were harvested in their exponential phase of growth in an acetate medium and incubated aerobically with sodium acetate-2-C14, about 33% of the label appeared in CO2 after 1 hr. Of the radioactivity in the cells, 72% was recovered in the protein hydrolysate, 8% in the nucleic acid, 6% in the lipid and 14% in the ethanol-soluble fractions. The radioactivity in the protein hydrolysate of cells incubated with sodium acetate-2-C14 was approximately 20 times that in the hydrolysate of cells incubated with C14O2 as the carbon source. By spectrophotometric methods, it was demonstrated that cell-free extracts of cells grown on acetate contained acetate kinase and phosphate acetyltransferase, plus, as demonstrated by spectrophotometric and isotopic methods, isocitrate lyase and malate synthase which are characteristic of the glyoxylate cycle. The enzymes of the glyoxylate cycle could not be demonstrated in cell-free extracts of E. coli 64 grown on glucose under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions. Possible functions that E. coli 64 may have in the maintenance of anaerobiosis in the rumen and utilization of acetate through the glyoxylate pathway are discussed.