The metabolism of C2 compounds in micro-organisms. 7. Preparation and properties of crystalline tartronic semialdehyde reductase

Abstract

The biosynthesis of cell materials by Pseudo- monas spp. growing on glycollate (Kornberg & Gotto, 1959, 1961), on glycine (Callely & Dagley, 1959), on oxalate (Quayle & Keech, 1959) or on other substrates catabolized to glyoxylate (Gray, Gerhart & Brooke, 1959) has been shown to be effected by a sequence of reactions in which, initially, glyoxylate is converted into glycerate. This transformation is achieved by the successive action of two adaptively formed enzymes: gly- oxylate carboligase (Krakow & Barkulis, 1956; Krakow, Hayashi & Barkulis, 1959; Krakow, Barkulis & Hayashi, 1961), which catalyses the condensative decarboxylation of glyoxylate to tartronic semialdehyde: