ALFRED BENNUN, PH.D.

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Energy requirement for the anaerobic oxidation of acetate in baker´s yeast
Stoppani, A.O.M., Bennun, A. and De Pahn, E.M.

Baker's yeast oxidizes acetate in the absence of oxygen or in the presence of antimycin A, an inhibitor of electron transport. The oxidation takes place mostly through the Krebs cycle and is stimulated by glucose. The results summarized below establish the necessity of high-energy phosphate for the anaerobic oxidation of acetate.
The materials and methods employed were similar to those used previously. For analysis of phosphate compounds, the cells were extracted with 10% trichloro-acetic acid solution as described before. Pi and the orthophosphate liberated after acid hydrolysis of P7 were extracted with the isobutanol-benzene mixture for chemical determination or counting of radioactivity. P7 was hydrolyzed with 1 NH2SO4 for 7 min at 100°. In order to determine ATP and ADP, nucleotides in the trichloroacetic acid extract were adsorbed by stepwise addition of purified Norit A (200 mg/5 ml of trichloroacetic acid extract). After 1 h at 30° the adsorbed nucleotides were centrifuged, and eluted twice with ethanol-pyridine-water mixture (45:45:10, v/v), first for 2 h at 37° and then for further 24 h. The eluates were concentrated in vacuo and chromatographed on Whatman No. 1 paper pre-treated with 10% Na2CO3; 1 N formic acid; 0.01 M EDTA (pH 7), and ethanol (after each treatment the respective reagent was washed out with distilled water). The solvent system employed for chromatography was ethanol-ammonium acetate. Radioactive [32P] nucleotides were located in the chromatogram by radioautography and fluor¬escence under a Mineralight lamp. After elution, the nucleotides were further identified by cochromatography with pure specimens and the concentration determined by absorbancy at 260 mµ.
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 92, (1964), 176-178