Role of Phosphate in Pyruvic Acid Dehydrogenation

Abstract

DURING earlier work¹ on the problem of pyruvic acid dehydrogenation with Bacterium acidificans longissimum (Delbrückii), it was found that in the absence of inorganic phosphate no reaction took place, and at low concentrations of phosphate the rate of dehydrogenation was proportional to concentration. This indicated that inorganic phosphate must in one way or another participate in the reaction. Such a view was further strengthened when it was found that pyruvic acid dehydrogenation was able to promote adenylic acid phosphorylation². The supplying of active phosphate by a dehydrogenation reaction had only been observed with the phosphoglyceric aldehyde dehydrogenation^3,4. Recently Negelein and Brömel⁵ were able to isolate as the primary product of this dehydrogenation a labile di-phosphoglyceric acid which they assumed to be either a 1-3-phospho. or a pyrophospho-compound, probably the former. The remarkable finding of Negelein and Brömel induced me to see whether during dehydrogenation of pyruvic acid to acetic acid an intermediary phosphate compound occurred.