An alternative pathway for the degradation of endogenous fructose during the catabolism of sucrose in Rhodopseudomonas capsulata.

Sucrose catabolism was studied in Rhodopseudomonas capsulata. Sucrose was hydrolysed by the action of a constitutive cytoplasmic sucrase. The use of a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase-deficient mutant and radiorespirometric experiments demonstrated that both the glucose and fructose moieties of sucrose were catabolized via the Entner-Doudoroff pathway. This result was confirmed by enzyme analysis and studies on sugar assimilation. All the enzymes of the Entner-Doudoroff pathway were present in bacteria grown on secrose but fructokinase (EC 1.7.1.4) activity was relatively low. In contrast, phosphoenolpyruvate:fructose phosphotransferase and 1-phosphofructokinase, the key enzymes for the catabolism of exogenous fructose, were only partially induced. Bacteria grown on sucrose and treated with chloramphenicol were, therefore, not able to assimilate exogenous fructose. We conclude that under these conditions endogenous fructose is catabolized via the Entner-Douboroff pathway, while exogenous fructose is degraded via fructose 1-phosphate and the Embden-Meyerhof pathway.