This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Schulman, M. Articles by Wood, H. G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Schulman, M. Articles by Wood, H. G.

Total Synthesis of Acetate from CO₂ V. Determination by Mass Analysis of the Different Types of Acetate Formed from ¹³CO₂ by Heterotrophic Bacteria

Department of Biochemistry, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Department of Biochemistry, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30001

ABSTRACT

Mass analysis was used to determine the amount of acetate which is totally synthesized from ¹³CO₂ during fermentations by Clostridium formicoaceticum, C. acidiurici, C. cylindrosporum, Butyribacterium rettgeri, and Diplococcus glycinophilus. In the fermentation of fructose by C. formicoaceticum, 27% of the acetate was found to be totally synthesized from CO₂, and the remaining acetate was unlabeled, having been formed from fructose. Evidence is presented that the purine-fermenting organisms, C. acidiurici and C. cylindrosporum, totally synthesized about 9% of the acetate from CO₂, and that the methyl group of an additional 9% was formed from CO₂. The remaining acetate was formed from the carbons of the purine and not via CO₂. It has been postulated that the fermentation of the purines and synthesis of acetate from CO₂ both occur via derivatives of tetrahydrofolate. Evidence is presented that a compartmentalization of these folate intermediates is required if both the purine degradation and the CO₂ utilization involve identical intermediates. Neither B. rettgeri nor D. glycinophilus incorporated sufficient ¹³CO₂ into acetate to allow determination of the types of acetate by mass analysis, although they did incorporate labeled ¹⁴CO₂ in both positions of acetate.

¹ Present address: Department of Pathology, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• le Van, T. D., Robinson, J. A., Ralph, J., Greening, R. C., Smolenski, W. J., Leedle, J. A. Z., Schaefer, D. M. (1998). Assessment of Reductive Acetogenesis with Indigenous Ruminal Bacterium Populations and Acetitomaculum ruminis. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64: 3429-3436 [Abstract] [Full Text]