Uptake of glycerol by tumor cells and its control by glucose.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E C Lin.
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Klebsiella aerogenes dissimilates glycerol aerobically via an inducible pathway initiated by an adenosine triphosphate-linked kinase that converts the substrate to sn-glycerol 3-phosphate. Phosphorylated glycerol is then dehydrogenated to dihydroxyacetone phosphate by an enzyme characteristic of a flavoprotein. Anaerobically, the organism dissimilates glycerol via an inducible pathway initiated by a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-linked dehydrogenase that converts the substrate to dihydroxyacetone. The keto product is then phosphorylated by another adenosine triphosphate-linked kinase. Two kinds of constitutive mutants have been isolated: one affecting the aerobic and the other the anaerobic pathway.
A particulate subcellular fraction from Escherichia coli K-12 induced in anaerobic sn-glycerol 3-phosphate (G3P) dehydrogenase and fumarate reductase can catalyze under anaerobic conditions the transfer of hydrogens from G3P to fumarate, with attendant generation of high-energy phosphate. The phsophorylation process is more sensitive than the transhydrogenation process to inhibition by the detergent Triton X-100. The same is true with respect to sensitivity to sodium azide, carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone and N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. Such a preparation derived from cells with beta-galactoside permease can accumulate thiomethyl beta-D-galactoside anaerobically, and the accumulation can be stimulated twofold by adding G3P and fumarate. Mutants lacking the membrane-associated Mg2+-dependent adenosine triphosphatase cannot grow anaerobically on glycerol with fumarate as the hydrogen acceptor, although they can grow aerobically on glycerol alone.
It is known that in Escherichia coli two dehydrogenases of the flavoprotein kind can participate in the transfer of hydrogens from sn-glycerol 3-phosphate (G3P) to nitrate and that possession of either enzyme is sufficient to permit anaerobic growth on glycerol as carbon source and nitrate as hydrogen acceptor. Results from this study show that under such a growth condition a protein with light-absorption characteristics of cytochrome b1 is induced. If G3P, nitrate, and adenosine diphosphate are added anaerobically to a particulate fraction prepared from these cells, four reactions can be detected: (i) the reduction of the cytochrome b1-like protein, (ii) the formation of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP), (iii) the formation of nitrite, and (iv) the generation of adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP). The anaerobic G3P dehydrogenase system can yield an ATP-DHAP (or ATP-nitrite) molar ratio of about 0.2, whereas the aerobic G3P dehydrogenase system can yield a corresponding ratio of about 0.3. The hydrogen transfer activity is sensitive to respiratory inhibitors such as cyanide, Rotenone, and 2-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline-N-oxide.
A mutant strain of Escherichia coli capable of growth on l-1,2-propanediol was isolated previously. The mutant is characterized by constitutive production of a propanediol:nicotinamide adenenine dinucleotide (NAD) oxidoreductase which is essential for the new growth property. In the present study, it is shown that phage P1 cotransduces the genetic locus conferring this property and the genes for the utilization of l-fucose. A further indication of a relationship between these two growth properties is provided by the observation that wild-type E. coli excretes propanediol during fermentation of l-fucose. Under these conditions, a propanediol dehydrogenase (lactaldehyde reductase) is induced. This enzyme migrates on diethylaminoethyl-cellulose with the propanediol dehydrogenase produced constitutively by the mutant strain. A key event in the establishment of the ability to grow on propanediol is evidently a shift in the expression and function of propanediol dehydrogenase; an enzyme catalyzing formation of a reduced fermentation product anaerobically in wild-type cells functions aerobically to oxidize this same product in the mutant. l-Lactaldehyde, which is thus derived from propanediol, is converted to l-lactate by another dehydrogenase (l-lactaldehyde:NAD oxidoreductase) which is constitutively produced by both wild-type and mutant cells. The normal function of this enzyme is not yet established. l-Lactate is converted to pyruvate by an inducible NAD-independent l-lactate dehydrogenase. Thus, the carbons of propanediol are brought into the central metabolic network of the cell.
The utilization of glycerol as a carbon source for growth by Klebsiella aerogenes, strain 2103, involves separate aerobic (sn-glycerol-3-phosphate or G3P) and anaerobic (dihydroxyacetone or DHA) pathways of catabolism. Enzyme and transport activities of the aerobic pathway are elevated in cells grown under oxygenated conditions on glycerol or G3P. Anaerobic growth on G3P as carbon source requires the presence of an exogenous hydrogen acceptor such as fumarate; cells thus grown also are highly induced in the G3P pathway. Anaerobic growth on glycerol requires no exogenous hydrogen acceptors; cells thus grown are highly induced in the DHA pathway but almost uninduced in the G3P pathway and the addition of fumarate electron acceptors has no effect on the relative levels of the two pathways. When both glycerol and G3P are provided anaerobically with fumarate, the DHA pathway is still preferentially induced, which probably accounts for the exclusive utilization of glycerol until its exhaustion. These observations suggest the presence of a regulatory control of G3P pathway imposed by the operation of the DHA pathway.
Galactosyl-mannitol can be transported into cells of Escherichia coli by beta-galactoside permease and can be hydrolyzed rapidly to mannitol and galactose by beta-galactosidase. When a mutant strain lacking enzyme I of the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system and constitutive in the lactose system was presented with galactosyl-mannitol in which the mannitol moiety was labeled with (3)H, the liberated mannitol remained inside the cell if the Enzyme II complex of the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system for mannitol was uninduced. It is postualted that one of the enzyme II proteins can still catalyze translocation of mannitol across the cell membrane even when phsophorylation is not possible.
Anaerobic growth of Escherichia coli on glycerol as carbon source and fumarate as hydrogen acceptor results in the induction of both anaerobic sn-glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) dehydrogenase and fumarate reductase. In previous studies, the G3P dehydrogenase was measured by the G3P-dependent reduction of a tetrazolium dye mediated by phenazine methosulfate in the presence of flavine mononucleotide and flavine adenine dinucleotide, and fumarate reductase was measured by the fumarate-dependent oxidation of reduced flavine mononucleotide. Results from the present study indicate that these two enzymes actually constitute a functional complex which is sedimentable at 200,000 x g in 2 h and which can catalyze the dehydrogenation of G3P at the expense of fumarate without any added cofactor. This coupling activity is not constituted by simply mixing an extract containing anaerobic G3P dehydrogenase with another extract containing fumarate reductase. Additional evidence for an organized complex is provided by the high degree of sensitivity of the coupled reaction to low concentrations of the detergents Triton X-100 and Emasol 1130 in comparison with the individual activities of the two component enzymes measured with the aid of artificial cofactors.
Staphylococcus aureus dissimilates glycerol via an adenosine triphosphate-dependent kinase and not by the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system.
Three kinds of control mechanisms govern the expression of the members of the glp regulon for glycerol and sn-glycerol 3-phosphate (G3P) catabolism in Escherichia coli K-12: specific repression by the product of the glpR gene; catabolite repression; and respiratory repression (the effect exerted by exogenous hydrogen acceptors). The operons of the glp system show different patterns of response to each control. By growing in parallel a mutant strain with temperature-sensitive repressor (glpR(ts)) and an isogenic control with a deletion in the regulator gene at progressively higher temperatures, it was possible to show that the synthesis of aerobic G3P dehydrogenase (glpD product) is far more sensitive to specific repression than that of either glycerol kinase (glpK product) or G3P transport (glpT product). Conversely, in the strain with a deletion in the regulator gene, the syntheses of glycerol kinase and G3P transport are more sensitive to catabolite repression than that of the aerobic G3P dehydrogenase. The levels of the two flavoprotein G3P dehydrogenases vary in opposite directions in response to changes of exogenous hydrogen acceptors. For example, the ratio of the aerobic enzyme to the anaerobic enzyme (specified by glpA) is high when molecular oxygen or nitrate serves as the hydrogen acceptor and low when fumarate plays this role. This trend is not influenced by the addition of cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate to the growth medium. Thus, respiratory repression most likely involves a third mechanism of control, independent of specific or catabolite repression.
Mutants of Escherichia coli K-12 defective in the mannitol-specific enzyme II complex of the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system (PTS) or lacking mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase have been isolated. These mutants fail only to grow on mannitol. Growth of the dehydrogenase-negative mutant on casein hydrolysate can be abruptly inhibited by exposure to mannitol. A mutant with constitutive expression of both of these enzymes has also been isolated. All three mutations are clustered in a region represented at min 71 of the Taylor map. In a mutant with less than 5% of the activity of enzyme I of the PTS, both the enzyme II complex and the dehydrogenase remain inducible by mannitol. In the mutant defective in the enzyme II complex, mannitol is able to induce the dehydrogenase. Thus, mannitol, rather than its phosphorylated product, seems to be the inducer.
The anaerobic l-alpha-glycerophosphate (l-alpha-GP) dehydrogenase of Escherichia coli was purified approximately 40-fold. The activity of the dehydrogenase, although not affected by the addition of pyridine nucleotides, was stimulated three- to fourfold by flavine adenine dinucleotide (K(m) about 10(-7)m) and up to 10-fold by flavine mononucleotide (K(m) about 10(-4)m). Maximal activity of the enzyme was found only in the combined presence of saturating concentrations of both flavines (stimulation by a factor of 10 to 15). The dependence of the rate of the reaction on the concentration of l-alpha-GP was complex in the presence of both flavines, but in the presence of flavine adenine dinucleotide alone the kinetics were of the Michaelis-Menten type with the K(m) for l-alpha-GP being about 10(-4)m. The product of the reaction was identified as dihydroxyacetone phosphate, and the molecular weight of the dehydrogenase was estimated to be 80,000 +/- 10,000. Phenazine methosulfate, menadione and ferricyanide served as artificial acceptors for the dehydrogenase. The enzyme was sensitive to iodoacetate, p-chloromercuribenzoate, and N-ethymaleimide.
Wild-type Escherichia coli possesses an inducible permeation system which catalyzes facilitated diffusion of glycerol into the cell. A spectrophotometric method can be used to assess the presence of this mechanism. The structural gene for the facilitator (glpF) and the structural gene for glycerol kinase (glpK) apparently belong to a single operon. The glpF(+) allele permits effective glycerol utilization by the cells, and, at millimolar concentrations of glycerol, cells carrying the glpF(+) allele grow much faster than glpF genotypes. Although the glycerol-scavenging power of the cell depends both on the facilitated entry of the substrate and its subsequent trapping by an adenosine triphosphate-dependent phosphorylation, the two gene products, the facilitator and kinase, function independently. Wild-type Shigella flexneri appears to be glpK(+) but glpF. This organism grows slowly in media at low concentrations of glycerol. When the glpF(+) and glpK(+) alleles of E. coli are inserted into the S. flexneri genome by transduction, the hybrid strain grows rapidly in low glycerol medium. Vice versa, when the glpF and glpK(+) alleles of S. flexneri are incorporated into E. coli, the hybrid strain grows slowly in low glycerol medium.
In Escherichia coli K-12 the proteins involved in the dissimilation of mannitol and sorbitol are specified by two separate gene clusters. The mannitol cluster appears to consist of a regulatory gene mtlC, a gene mtlA coding an enzyme II complex of the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system, and a gene mtlD coding a mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase. Three corresponding genes, sblC, sblA, and sblD, exist for the sorbitol pathway. In both pathways the hexitol captured from the medium and delivered into the cytoplasm as a phosphorylated compound is dehydrogenated to fructose-6-phosphate. The enzyme II complex for sorbitol is able to catalyze the phosphorylation also of mannitol if this substrate is present at high concentrations. Consequently mtlA(-) mutants lacking the enzyme II complex for mannitol can grow on mannitol either if the sorbitol phosphorylating system is preinduced by sorbitol or if mtlA is suppressed by a mutation of sblC to constitutivity. In wild-type cells, the induction of the enzymes in the mannitol pathway and dissimilation of the substrate are not prevented by glucose. The sorbitol system, however, is sensitive to glucose and to mannitol as well. In the suppressed strains (mtlA(-), sblC(c)) in which mannitol is utilized through the sorbitol enzyme, glucose becomes effective in restraining the consumption of mannitol, causing a definite diauxie. Moreover, in a mixture of mannitol and sorbitol, the latter is utilized preferentially. This reversal of normal diauxic pattern is consequent to the fact that the enzyme II complex for sorbitol has relatively poor affinity for mannitol.
Glycerol-specific revertants were isolated from a phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase mutant lacking enzyme I activity. Sixteen of the eighteen separately derived revertants were found to synthesize a fully active glycerol kinase no longer subject to feedback inhibition by fructose 1,6-diphosphate. The suppressor mutation mapped at the known glpK locus. When the fructose, 1,6-diphosphate-insensitive kinase allele was transduced into a strain producing the glp enzymes constitutively, cells of the resultant strain were susceptible to killing by glycerol if this compound was added to a culture growing exponentially in casein hydrolysate. This phenomenon had been previously described for a strain which had a constitutive glycerol kinase refractory to feedback inhibition, but isolated by a different procedure. It is suggested that the suppression of the growth defect on glycerol in the enzyme I(-) mutant by the fructose 1,6-diphosphate-insensitive kinase is achieved by increasing the in vivo catalytic potential of glycerol kinase. This increased activity would allow more rapid conversion of glycerol to l-alpha-glycerophosphate, the true inducer of the glp system. The enzyme I defect in the parental strain impaired the inducibility of the glp system so that the normal basal catalytic activity of the kinase was insufficient to insure induction by glycerol.
A glycerol-specific phenotypic revertant isolated from a mutant of Escherichia coli missing enzyme I of the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system was studied. This revertant is capable of producing higher levels of glycerol kinase and the protein mediating the facilitated diffusion of glycerol (facilitator) than wild-type cells. The kinase of the revertant is indistinguishable from the wild-type enzyme with respect to its sensitivity to feedback inhibition by fructose-1,6-diphosphate, its pH optimum, and its turnover number. The synthesis of glycerol kinase in strains bearing the suppressor locus is resistant to catabolite repression. The suppressor mutation mapped at the known glpK locus. Thus, it is suggested that the mutation occurred in the promoter of the operon specifying the kinase and the facilitator.
In Escherichia coli K-12, the conversion of glycerol to triose phosphate is regulated by two types of control mechanism: the rate of synthesis of glycerol kinase and the feedback inhibition of its activity by fructose-1,6-diphosphate. A strain which has lost both control mechanisms by successive mutations, resulting in the constitutive synthesis of a glycerol kinase no longer sensitive to feedback inhibition, can produce a bactericidal factor from glycerol. This toxic factor has been identified by chemical and enzymological tests as methylglyoxal. Methylglyoxal can be derived from dihydroxyacetone phosphate through the action of an enzyme which is present at high constitutive levels in the extracts of the mutant as well as that of the wild-type strain. Nine spontaneous mutants resistant to 1 mm exogenous methylglyoxal have been isolated. In all cases the resistance is associated with increased levels of a glutathione-dependent enzymatic activity for the removal of methylglyoxal. Methylglyoxal-resistant mutants derived from the glycerol-sensitive parental strain also became immune to glycerol.
A technique allowing chain formation by Escherichia coli for the analysis of the segregation of certain cellular components by autoradiographic methods has been developed. Deoxyribonucleic acid labeled with (3)H-thymidine does not appear to segregate preferentially with one or another of the bacteria. Membrane lipids labeled with either (3)H-oleate or (3)H-glycerol are evenly distributed among all progeny cells. A similar pattern of distribution of cell wall material is observed when (3)H-diaminopimelate is used as the marker.