1960 Volume 13 Issue 3 Pages 155-163
As reported in a previous paper1) , effect of dihydrostreptomycin or chloramphenicol on α-ketoglutarate-fermentation of glucose by a growing culture of E. coli or P. fluorescens was investigated, and some evidences were provided that both dihydrostreptomycin and chloramphenicol inhibited this fermentation and that dihydrostreptomycin revealed a remarkable accelerating effect on decomposition of α-ketoglutarate.
Koepsell et al.2,3) suggested that pyruvate might be an intermediate m the formation of α-ketoglutarate from 2-ketogluconate by P. fluorescens. Katagiri, Tochikura and Imai4,5,6,7,8,9) investigated the oxidative degradation of glucose, pyruvate and members of tricarboxylic acid cycle by coli-aerogenes bacteria and confirmed that the major production of α-ketoglutarate from various carbon compounds (i. e., glucose, pyruvate, lactate, dibasic acids) by the bacteria of coli-aerogenes group did not proceed by way of the conventional tricarboxylic acid cycle, but by certain reactions in which pyruvate and acetate were concerned.
In the present paper, experiments were at first designed to study the effects of various antibiotics on the aerobic metabolism of glucose and organic acids with E. coli, that is, whether the yield of α-ketoglutarate from various carbon compounds would be affected in presence of antibiotics, and whether the effects of antibiotics upon the aerobic metabolism of these bacteria would be various among different antibiotics. Subsequently, effects of antibiotics on decomposition of α-ketoglutarate were investigated.
