Further clues concerning the vectors essential to regulation of hexose transport, as studied in fibroblast cultures from a metabolic mutant.

A close study of the metabolic regulation of hexose transport in a hamster fibroblast mutant, highly defective in the enzyme phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI mutant), reveals the requirement for at least three vectors for transport regulation. The downward regulation of the hexose transport system, called the "transport curb," requires (i) a ligand for the transport system, (ii) oxidative energy metabolism, and (iii) some specific enzymes of the glucose-6-phosphate metabolism. Deprivation of glucose was shown to deprive the PGI mutant of UDP hexose, whereas the glucose-fed mutant contained high levels. The parental strain preserved the UDP hexose with or without glucose feeding. Cycloheximide added to the mutant showed two different types of effects. If added at the onset of glucose starvation, the up-regulation of the transport system was scarcely affected. If cycloheximide was added to the mutant at the onset of glucose refeeding, it prevented the development of the glucose-mediated transport curb. In the mutant, the glucose-mediated curb is not derived from energy metabolism but is solely dependent on certain enzymes of glucose-6-phosphate metabolism. The interference of this curb by cycloheximide requires evidently a reassessment, including that of the role of the UDP hexose pathway in regulation of the hexose transport system.