Abstract
An yeast, Hansenula jadinii, which was one of the best producers of CDP-choline on our system, lost its activity when cultured in jar fermenter. This phenomenon was also reproduced in flasks. Cells cultured aerobically in the medium containing 1% of glucose (A-cells) could not phosphorylate nucleotides although development of mitochondria was observed, whereas cells cultured less aerobically in the medium containing 5% of glucose (D-cells) could phosphorylate CMP to CTP and finally produce CDP-choline although they had only poor mitochondria. Further study revealed that the A-cells were unstable in hexokinase activity, although they had the dense cytosol, whereas the D-cells remained stable, and they had many round particles. Glycolytic activity was about 4 times stronger in the D-cells than in the Acells. The phenomenon that respiration (development of mitochondria) suppressed fermentation (glycolysis) has been known as the Pasteur effect. However, in our system, phosphofructokinase, the primary key enzyme of the Pasteur effect, was active in the A-cells. Therefore, our phenomenon seemed to be a modified Pasteur effect.
