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Journal of Bacteriology, November 2004, p. 7229-7235, Vol. 186, No. 21
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.21.7229-7235.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Ribose Utilization with an Excess of Mutarotase Causes Cell Death Due to Accumulation of Methylglyoxal

Insook Kim,1 Eunjung Kim,1 Seokho Yoo,1 Daesung Shin,1 Bumchan Min,2 Jeeyeon Song,1 and Chankyu Park1*

Department of Life Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology,1 Analytical Science Center, Samyang Central R & D Institute, Yusong-Ku, Taejon, Republic of Korea2

Received 15 July 2004/ Accepted 27 July 2004

Methylglyoxal (MG) is a highly reactive metabolic intermediate, presumably accumulated during uncontrolled carbohydrate metabolism. The major source of MG is dihydroxyacetone phosphate, which is catalyzed by MG synthase (the mgs product) in bacteria. We observed Escherichia coli cell death when the ribose transport system, consisting of the RbsDACBK proteins, was overproduced on multicopy plasmids. Almost 100% of cell death occurs a few hours after ribose addition (>10 mM), due to an accumulation of extracellular MG as detected by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR). Under lethal conditions, the concentration of MG produced in the medium reached approximately 1 mM after 4 h of ribose addition as measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. An excess of the protein RbsD, recently characterized as a mutarotase that catalyzes the conversion between the ß-pyran and ß-furan forms of ribose, was critical in accumulating the lethal level of MG, which was also shown to require ribokinase (RbsK). The intracellular level of ribose 5-phosphate increased with the presence of the protein RbsD, as determined by 31P-NMR. As expected, a mutation in the methylglyoxal synthase gene (mgs) abolished the production of MG. These results indicate that the enhanced ribose uptake and incorporation lead to an accumulation of MG, perhaps occurring via the pentose-phosphate pathway and via glycolysis with the intermediates fructose 6-phosphate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. It was also demonstrated that a small amount of MG is synthesized by monoamine oxidase.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Life Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Yusong-Ku, Taejon 305-701, Republic of Korea. Phone: 82-42-869-2629. Fax: 82-42-869-2610. E-mail: ckpark{at}kaist.ac.kr.

Journal of Bacteriology, November 2004, p. 7229-7235, Vol. 186, No. 21
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.21.7229-7235.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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