ISSN:
1432-072X
Keywords:
Desulfobacterium autotrophicum
;
Tetrahydrofolate
;
Formyl-tetrahydrofolate synthetase
;
Pterin
;
Acetyl CoA pathway
;
Autotrophic
;
Sulfate reducing
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
Abstract In Desulfobacterium autotrophicum, a facultatively autotrophic, sulfate reducing eubacterium, CO2-fixing enzymes of the acetyl CoA/CO dehydrogenase pathway but neither key enzymes of the Calvin cycle nor those of the reductive citric acid cycle were detectable. This finding substantiates the proposal that the former pathway is operating in the reductive direction for CO2 fixation into acetyl CoA, and in the oxidative direction for acetyl CoA oxidation to CO2. However, the specific activity of an essential one-carbon metabolizing enzyme of this pathway, formyl-tetrahydrofolate synthetase, was unsufficient (0.01 μmol·min-1 ·mg-1), and its apparent K m-value for l-tetrahydrofolate (10 mM) was inadequate. It is shown that the physiological cosubstrate in this bacterium is not tetrahydrofolic acid, but a tetrahydropterin containing 4 mol of l-glutamate per mol of pterin. With this coenzyme the specific formyltetrahydropterin synthetase activity (1.7 μmol·min-1·mg-1) was 170-fold higher and the apparent K m for the tetrahydropterin (0.07 mM) was 140-fold lower. This indicates that it may be essential to reexamine the enzymes of acetyl CoA/CO dehydrogenase pathway in this organism and others with the proper cellular cosubstrate.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00444673
Permalink