ANAEROBIC DISSIMILATION OF C14-LABELED GLUCOSE AND FRUCTOSE BY PSEUDOMONAS LINDNERI

Abstract

Ethanol formation during the heterolactic fermentation of glucose by Leuconostoc me$enteroides has been shown to proceed via a pathway differing from the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas glycolysis scheme (1-3). Ethanol arising during yeast fermentation via the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas scheme is derived from carbon atoms 1 (aldehyde carbon), 2, 5, and 6 of glucose (4), the methyl group representing carbons 1 and 6, while in the heterolactic fermentation only carbon atoms 2 and 3 give rise to ethanol, the methyl group representing carbon atom 2. It was, therefore, of interest to determine whether ethanol formation in other bacterial fermentations involved the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas or other pathways. Pseudomonas lindneri (Zymomonas lindneri, Termobacterium mobile) was investigated because of its high yield of ethanol during glucose or fructose fermentation. This fermentation has been studied by Kluyver and Hoppenbrouwers (5) using growing cultures, and their results may be expressed in the following equation: