Pyruvate Production and Excretion by the Luminous Marine Bacteria

During aerobic growth on glucose, several species of luminous marine bacteria exhibited an imcomplete oxidative catabolism of substrate. Pyruvate, one of the products of glucose metabolism, was excreted into the medium during exponential growth and accounted for up to 50% of the substrate carbon metabolized. When glucose was depleted from the medium, the excreted pyruvate was promptly utilized, demonstrating that the cells are capable of pyruvate catabolism. Pyruvate excretion is not a general phenomenon of carbohydrate metabolism since it does not occur during the utilization of glycerol or maltose. When cells pregrown on glycerol were exposed to glucose, they began to excrete pyruvate, even if protein synthesis was blocked with chloramphenicol. Glucose thus appears to have an effect on the activity of preexisting catabolic enzymes.