LACTATE-DEGRADING SYSTEM IN BUTYRIBACTERIUM RETTGERI SUBJECT TO GLUCOSE REPRESSION

Abstract

Wittenberger, Charles L. (National Institute of Dental Research, U.S. Public Health Service, Bethesda, Md.), and Ann S. Haaf . Lactate-degrading system in Butyribacterium rettgeri subject to glucose repression. J. Bacteriol. 88: 896–903. 1964.—The ability of Butyribacterium rettgeri to utilize lactate as the main energy source for growth requires the formation of a lactate-degrading system. The precise nature of this system is unknown, but preliminary evidence suggests that cellular acquisition of lactate-decomposing activity involves the formation of a nonpyridine nucleotide-linked lactic dehydrogenase. This enzyme, which can couple lactate oxidation to the reduction of ferricyanide [K 3 Fe(CN) 6 -lactic de-hydrogenase (LDH)], is absent from glucose-grown cells; this observation appears to account for the inability of such cells to decompose lactate even though they may form lactate from glucose. The formation of K 3 Fe(CN) 6 -LDH in growing cultures requires the addition of lipoic acid to the medium, and is repressed by glucose, pyruvate, or fructose. When any of the latter substrates are included in the growth medium with lactate, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-linked LDH activity is present in cells at markedly higher levels than it is in cells grown on lactate alone.