Catabolic pathways of glucose in Bacillus circulans var. alkalophilus

Abstract

Enzymes and the metabolic pathways of glucose catabolism of Bacillus circulans var. alkalophilus were studied. The metabolism of the microbe was mixed acid fermentative yielding mainly acetic and formic acids as end products from glucose. It was estimated that B. circulans var. alkalophilus partitions 90%–93% of the carbon from glucose into the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas (EMP) pathway and 7%–10% into the hexose monophosphate (HMP) and Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathways. Rather low activities of glucose dehydrogenase and gluconokinase appeared in the early logarithmic and late stationary phases, whereas NADH oxidase was markedly high. This result can be explained by a demand to reduce NADH to NAD⁺ for the EMP pathway; when acetic and formic acids are produced, no NADH is regenerated to NAD⁺, which is required in the early steps of EMP and HMP pathways. A small percentage (1.6%–2.4%) of the total CO₂ was formed from (6-C) of glucose, which means that the tricarboxylic acid cycle was functional but its contribution was insignificant. Large differences do not seem to exist between alkaliphilic and neutrophilic bacilli in the use of glucose pathways.