STUDIES ON THE BIOCHEMISTRY OF STREPTOMYCES

Abstract

Glucose catabolism in S. griseus was studied by a series of time-course experiments on the utilization of glucose-1,2,3(4),6-C14, glucose-U-C14, acetate-1-C14 and acetate-2-C14 by this organism incubated in a growth medium. It was concluded that the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas glycolytic pathway is responsible for utilization of the major portion of glucose with a minor part of the latter metabolized via the phosphogluconate decarboxylation route. Age of culture may influence somewhat the extent of utilization of either pathway but does not alter the over-all pattern of glucose metabolism, although the respiratory and biosynthetic functions are much more active in younger cultures. The nature of endogenous respiration in S. griseus was also studied while C14-uniformly-labeled cells were incubated in the presence and absence of non-radioactive glucose. The presence of external C source exerts a minor but significant stimulatory effect on the ratio of endogenous turnover in this organism.