Pyrithiamine adaptation of Staphylococcus aureus. I. Adaptation and carbohydrate utilization.

Das, S. K. (University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India) and G. C. Chatterjee. Pyrithiamine adaptation of Staphylococcus aureus. I. Adaptation and carbohydrate utilization. J. Bacteriol. 83:1251-1259. 1962.-Staphylococcus aureus has been adapted to pyrithiamine, a thiamine analogue; as a result of this adaptation, the color of the pigment of the organism changes from orange-yellow to lemon-yellow. The adaptation is reversible; the adapted strain will revert after repeated subculture in a medium containing thiamine and no pyrithiamine. Of the major biochemical alterations resulting from adaptation, severe depression in glucose utilization and simultaneous stimulation of acetate utilization have been noticed. The effect of metabolic inhibitors on the utilization of glucose and acetate has also been studied. By measuring the rate of formation of C(14)O(2) from glucose-1-C(14) and glucose-6-C(14), it has been observed that the reduction in C(14)O(2) formation from glucose-1-C(14) by the adapted organism is much more than that obtained from glucose-6-C(14), causing thereby a decreased metabolic ratio of these two substrates after such adaptation. Relative to the normal strain, the adapted strain utilizes acetate-C(14) at a much faster rate, both in the formation of C(14)O(2) and also in the incorporation of C(14) into the protein and lipid fractions; the rate of formation of C(14)O(2) from pyruvate-1-C(14) is not greatly altered. It has been postulated that there is a partial blocking of the pentose phosphate cycle, because of the lowered glucose-1-C(14) utilization, and simultaneous stimulation of the tricarboxylic acid cycle; or perhaps the initiation of some other route after pyrithiamine adaptation would account for the great increase in acetate utilization.