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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #65025

Title: THE REGULATION OF THIOMETHYLGALACTOSIDE TRANSPORT IN CLOSTRIDIUM ACETOBUTYLICUM P262 BY INDUCER EXCLUSION AND INDUCER EXPULSION MECHANISMS

Author
item DIEZ-GONZALEZ, FRANCISCO - CORNELL UNIVERSITY
item Russell, James

Submitted to: Federation of European Microbiological Societies Microbiology Letters
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/5/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Acid whey from cheese making is a major source of environmental pollution that has not been easy to remedy. The material is too dilute to ship, too acidic to be of use as an animal feed and not valuable enough to dehydrate. One possible mechanism of disposal could be bioconversion. We have identified a bacterium, Clostridium acetobutylicum, that is able to utilize lactose and lactate from acid whey. This paper describes the mechanism of lactose transport and utilization in C. acetobutylicum. Lactose utilization by C. acetobutylicum may provide a means of converting acid whey into industrial solvents, thereby alleviating a pollution problem.

Technical Abstract: Clostridium acetobutylicum P262 had phosphotransferase systems for glucose and lactose, but the lactose system was inducible. When C. acetobutylicum P262 was provided with glucose and lactose, the cultures grew in a diauxic fashion, and glucose was used preferentially. Cells grown on lactose took up thiomethylgalactoside (TMG), and retained this non-metabolizable lactose analog for long periods of time. Because glucose inhibited TMG uptake and caused the efflux of TMG that had already been taken up, it appeared that C. acetobutylicum P262 had inducer exclusion and inducer expulsion mechanisms similar to those found in lactic acid bacteria.