Abstract
A new strictly anaerobic, gram-negative, nonsporeforming bacterium, Strain PerGlx1, was enriched and isolated from marine sediment samples with glyoxylate as sole carbon and energy source. The guanineplus-cytosine content of the DNA was 44.1±0.2 mol %. Glyoxylate was utilized as the only substrate and was stoichiometrically degraded to carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and glycolate. An acetyl-CoA and ADP-dependent glyoxylate converting enzyme activity, malic enzyme, and pyruvate synthase were found at activities sufficient for growth (≥0.25 U x mg protein-1). These findings allow to design a new degradation pathway for glyoxylate: glyoxylate is condensed with acetyl-CoA to form malyl-CoA; the free energy of the thioester linkage in malyl-CoA is conserved by substrate level phosphorylation. Part of the electrons released during glyoxylate oxidation to CO2 reduce a small fraction of glyoxylate to glycolate.
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Friedrich, M., Schink, B. Fermentative degradation of glyoxylate by a new strictly anaerobic bacterium. Arch. Microbiol. 156, 392–397 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00248716
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00248716