Metabolism of the obligatory aerobic yeast Rhodotorula gracilis

✍ Scribed by H�fer, Milan ;Becker, J�rn-Ullrich ;Betz, Augustin

• Book ID: 104766993
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1970
• Weight: 274 KB
• Volume: 71
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-9276
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00417736

✦ Synopsis

D-Glucose and D-xylose addition to not-growing Rhodotorula gracilis cells brings about alterations in pyruvate kinase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activities characteristic for glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, respectively.

The functions of pyruvate kinase and of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in Rhodotorula gracilis cells are, as in other organisms, to form pyruvate from phosphoenolpyruvate during glycolysis and phosphoenolpyruvate from oxaloacetate during gluconeogenesis, respectively (Fernandez et al., 1967;de Torrontegui et al., 1966). Medrano and his coworkers (1969) showed that in Rh. gracilis growing on a mixture of D-glucose and pyruvate, the levels of both enzymes underwent drastic changes after the disappearance of the sugar from the culture medium. The level of pyruvate kinase dropped sharply while that of phosphocnolpyruvate carboxykinase rose abruptly.