An immediate and steep increase in ATP concentration in response to reduced turgor pressure in Escherichia coli B.

Osmotic treatment with sodium chloride of Escherichia coli B growing in the logarithmic phase induced an immediate increase in ATP concentration in response to increased concentrations of added solute in its growth medium in the first 10 min of the addition. After that, ATP concentration decreased gradually. Sodium arsenate and potassium fluoride almost abolished the ATP increase. The time course of the increase was quite different from that of cells treated with inhibitors of protein synthesis. The osmotic treatment did not decrease the viability of cells. In addition, there was no degradation of RNA by 5 min after sodium chloride addition, and, further, the lag time of ATP increase was extended by an inhibitor of nucleotide synthesis. These results indicated that a major fraction of the stress-increased ATP resulted from de novo synthesis, and that it was mainly dependent upon the reaction of substrate-level phosphorylation, which is regulated by turgor pressure.