PHOSPHORUS METABOLISM IN MOULDS

Abstract

ONE of the characteristic features of anaerobic carbohydrate metabolism in animal- and yeast-cells is the active participation of a number of well-defined phosphorylated intermediates. Comparatively little, however, is known about the nature and function of phosphorus compounds formed in the course of the aerobic metabolism of living cells. The study of the aerobic phosphorylations is made difficult by the circumstance that even under aerobic conditions fermentation may still occur and account for some of the changes observed in the phosphorus metabolism. In this respect, many mould fungi, especially the species of Aspergillus and Penicillium, occupy a somewhat unique position inasmuch as their carbohydrate metabolism is predominantly aerobic. Aspergillus niger, for example, will oxidize sugar very efficiently in the presence of oxygen to non-volatile organic acids such as gluconic, citric and oxalic acid, whereas anaerobically it will scarcely ferment sugar at all.