Open AccessThe growth rate‐limiting reaction in methanol‐assimilating yeasts
Author(s) -
Brinkmann Uta,
Mueller Roland H.,
Babel Wolfgang
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1990.tb04922.x
Subject(s) - limiting , methanol , chemistry , biology , organic chemistry , engineering , mechanical engineering
The maximum growth rate of methylotrophic yeasts during growth on methanol is about 0.2 h −1 . Since they are able to grow faster on substrates such as glucose we tried to identify the putative limiting step in methanol metabolism within the assimilatory pathway, leading to the formation of a major precursor for biosyntheses, or within the linear dissimilatory sequence. Growth experiments with mixed substrates and determination of some kinetic parameters allowed us to restrict the number of possible pacemaker enzymes. The dissimilatory sequence does not seem to be growth‐rate limiting. This also applies to transketolase, transaldolase and fructose‐1,6‐bisphosphatase. Surprisingly, methanol oxidase appears to be the prime candidate.