Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Applied and Environmental Microbiology logoLink to Applied and Environmental Microbiology
. 1993 Jan;59(1):231–235. doi: 10.1128/aem.59.1.231-235.1993

Characterization of Ethanol Production from Xylose and Xylitol by a Cell-Free Pachysolen tannophilus System

Jie Xu 1, Kenneth B Taylor 1,*
PMCID: PMC202083  PMID: 16348847

Abstract

Whole cells and a cell extract of Pachysolen tannophilus converted xylose to xylitol, ethanol, and CO2. The whole-cell system converted xylitol slowly to CO2 and little ethanol was produced, whereas the cell-free system converted xylitol quantitatively to ethanol (1.64 mol of ethanol per mol of xylitol) and CO2. The supernatant solution from high-speed centrifugation (100,000 × g) of the extract converted xylose to ethanol, but did not metabolize xylitol unless a membrane fraction and oxygen were also present. Fractionation of the crude cell extract by gel filtration resulted in an inactive fraction in which ethanol production from xylitol was fully restored by the addition of NAD+ and ADP. The continued conversion of xylose to xylitol in the presence of fluorocitrate, which inhibited aconitase, demonstrated that the tricarboxylic acid cycle was not the source of the electrons for the production of xylitol from xylose. Therefore, the source of the electrons is indirectly identified as an oxidative pentose-hexose cycle.

Full text

PDF
231

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. BUFFA P., PETERS R. A., WAKELIN R. W. Biochemistry of fluoroacetate poisoning; isolation of an active tricarboxylic acid fraction from poisoned kidney homogenates. Biochem J. 1951 Apr;48(4):467–477. doi: 10.1042/bj0480467. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bruinenberg P. M., van Dijken J. P., Scheffers W. A. An enzymic analysis of NADPH production and consumption in Candida utilis. J Gen Microbiol. 1983 Apr;129(4):965–971. doi: 10.1099/00221287-129-4-965. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. KORNBERG A., PRICER W. E., Jr Di- and triphosphopyridine nucleotide isocitric dehydrogenases in yeast. J Biol Chem. 1951 Mar;189(1):123–136. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. MORRISON J. F., PETERS R. A. Biochemistry of fluoroacetate poisoning: the effect of fluorocitrate on purified aconitase. Biochem J. 1954 Nov;58(3):473–479. doi: 10.1042/bj0580473. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Maleszka R., Schneider H. Fermentation of D-xylose, xylitol, and D-xylulose by yeasts. Can J Microbiol. 1982 Mar;28(3):360–363. doi: 10.1139/m82-054. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. PETERS R. A. The puzzle for therapy in fluoroacetate poisoning. Br Med J. 1952 Nov 29;2(4795):1165–1170. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.4795.1165. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. PETERS R. A., WILSON T. H. A further study of the inhibition on aconitase by inhibitor fraction isolated from tissues poisoned with fluoroacetate. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1952 Sep;9(3):310–315. doi: 10.1016/0006-3002(52)90166-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Perlman P. S., Mahler H. R. Intracellular localization of enzymes in yeast. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1970 Jan;136(1):245–259. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(70)90348-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Toivola A., Yarrow D., van den Bosch E., van Dijken J. P., Scheffers W. A. Alcoholic Fermentation of d-Xylose by Yeasts. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1984 Jun;47(6):1221–1223. doi: 10.1128/aem.47.6.1221-1223.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Applied and Environmental Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES