GLUCOSE AND RIBOSE OXIDATION BY PSEUDOMONAS FRAGI
The action of soluble and particulate fractions of sonically disrupted cells of Pseudomonas fragi on glucose and ribose was investigated. It was shown that ribose is oxidized by the particulate fraction to ribono-γ-lactone, but not further, thus verifying previous work. Evidence is presented in support of the fact that oxidation of both glucose and ribose is carried out by a single dehydrogenase enzyme, and that this enzyme is largely present in the particulate fraction. The soluble fraction possessed a lactonase enzyme which was purified slightly. This enzyme hydrolyzed glucono-δ-lactone but not glucono-γ-lactone. The washed particulate possessed no such lactonase activity. The soluble fraction possessed only about 4% of the dehydrogenase activity of the particulate fraction. Both the dehydrogenase and lactonase specific activities were similar when the organism was cultured in glucose or ribose-containing medium. Attempts to show that glucose was degraded by a phosphorolytic mechanism or that gluconic acid was degraded further failed. These findings are consistent with the fact that P. fragi oxidizes glucose to glucono-δ-lactone, and that this lactone is hydrolyzed to gluconic acid by a lactonase enzyme. No serious attempt was made to study the specificity of these enzymes, but it was observed that crude unwashed particulate fractions oxidized both galactose and mannose.