Evidence for the coordinate control of glycogen synthesis, glucose utilization, and glycolysis in Escherichia coli. I. Quantitative covariance of the rate of glucose utilization and the cellular level of fructose 1,6-diphosphate during exponential growth and nutrient limitation.

In cultures of Escherichia coli W4597(K) and G34 under various nutritional conditions the rates of glucose utilization and cellular levels of fructose-1,6-P2 are quantitatively related by the Hill equation where the value of the Hill coefficient is approximately equal to 2. This is the first evidence that fructose-P2, or any metabolite which covaries with fructose-P2, modulates glucose utilization in E. coli. In light of previous observations from our laboratory this new observation and those in the succeeding report provide the first evidence that in E. coli glycolysis, glycogen synthesis and glucose utilization are coordinately regulated, thus providing for the coupling of ATP utilization and production under various metabolic circumstances. Alterations in the level of ATP apparently affect the velocity of phosphofructokinase, the rate-limiting enzyme in glycolysis, altering the cellular levels of glucose-6-P or fructose-P2. Changes in the levels of these hexose phosphates are quantitatively related to alterations in the rates of glucose utilization and glycogen synthesis in the intact E. coli cell.