Conversion of glucose-1-phosphate to 3-keto-glucose-1-phosphate by cells of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Incubation of resting cells of Agrobacterium tumefaciens with glucose-1-phosphate resulted in the accumulation of a new sugar phosphate in the suspending medium. Approximately 80% of the glucose-1-phosphate consumed was converted to the new compound, which was identified as alpha-d-ribo-hexopyranosyl-3-ulose-1-phosphate (3-ketoglucose-1-phosphate). Both utilization of glucose-1-phosphate and accumulation of 3-ketoglucose-1-phosphate were inhibited by 2,4-dinitrophenol, polymyxin, and d-glucose, which are inhibitors of the glucoside transport system of this bacterium but are not inhibitors of d-glucoside-3-dehydrogenase, which is the 3-ketoglucose-1-phosphate-forming enzyme. Consequently, it was concluded that glucose-1-phosphate penetrates into intracellular space by means of an active transport system. The glucose-1-phosphate is converted to 3-ketoglucose-1-phosphate by d-glucoside-3-dehydrogenase, and the 3-ketoglucose-1-phosphate formed reaches the extracellular space by passing through the surface layer of the bacterium.