Abstract
THE two culturally distinct types of Corynebacterium diphtheriæ—gravis and mitis—differ biochemically in that only the former glycolyses glycogen although both glycolyse simpler carbohydrates such as glucose and maltose. On examining the hydrolysing capacity of these bacterial types in vitro we found that both gravis and mitis yield cell-free extracts or autolysates which convert glycogen into fermentable reducing sugar. In view of the differential desmolytic behaviour of the living cells towards glycogen it is necessary to conclude that in glycolysis the glycogenase of living cells does not necessarily come into play. It seems probable rather that gravis achieves the degradation of polysaccharide into lactic acid through a reaction path in which hydrolysis takes no part.
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Leibowitz and Hestrin, Enzymolog., 6, 15 (1939); NATURE, 145, 671 (1940); further papers in the press.
Cori and Cori, Proc. Soc Exp. Biol., 39, 337 (1938).
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Kiessling, Biochem. Z., 302, 50 (1939).
Hanes, NATURE, 145, 348 (1940); Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 128, 421 (1940).
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LEIBOWITZ, J., AVINERY-SHAPIRO, S. Glycolysis, Hydrolysis and Phosphorolysis in Corynebacterium diphtheriæ. Nature 147, 745 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147745a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147745a0
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