Summary
A choline-requiring strain of Torulopsis pintolopesii when growing on choline-methyl-14C or choline-methyl-3H excretes the radioactivity incorporated in the first 24–48 h of incubation up to ca. 85–95% of the radioactivity added at the beginning of the incubation. The addition of non-radioactive methionine did not interfere with the uptake and excretion of radioactivity from choline-Me-14C. Radioactive methyl group of methionine previously incorporated by growing cells of T. pintolopesii on varying concentrations of choline was not excreted in appreciable amounts. No evidence was obtained for the oxidation of choline to betaine, degradation to trimethylamine, or net incorporation of labelled choline into lecithin. The occurrence of a new pathway for the utilization of choline in yeasts is suggested. The requirement of choline by T. pintolopesii is explained tentatively by the formation and excretion of a compound containing the carbon and hydrogen atoms from the methyl groups of choline and whose chemical structure still under study, may comprise a heteroside containing mannitol as the polyhydroxylated moiety.
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Cruz, F.S., Travassos, L.R. Physiology of a choline-requiring strain of Torulopsis pintolopesii . Archiv. Mikrobiol. 73, 111–120 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00410314
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00410314