Glucose metabolism at high density growth of E. coli B and E. coli K: differences in metabolic pathways are responsible for efficient glucose utilization in E. coli B as determined by microarrays and Northern blot analyses.

In a series of previous reports it was established by implementing metabolic flux, NMR/MS, and Northern blot analysis that the glyoxylate shunt, the TCA cycle, and acetate uptake by acetyl-CoA synthetase are more active in Escherichia coli BL21 than in Escherichia coli JM109. These differences were accepted as the reason for the differences in the glucose metabolism and acetate excretion of these two strains. Examination of the bacterial metabolism by microarrays and time course Northern blot showed that in addition to the glyoxylate shunt, the TCA cycle and the acetate uptake, other metabolic pathways are active differently in the two strains. These are gluconeogenesis, sfcA shunt, ppc shunt, glycogen biosynthesis, and fatty acid degradation. It was found that in E. coli JM109, acetate is produced by pyruvate oxidase (poxB) using pyruvate as a substrate rather than by phosphotransacetylase-acetate kinase (Pta-AckA) system which uses acetyl-CoA. The inactivation of the gluconeogenesis enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate synthetase (ppsA), the activation of the anaplerotic sfcA shunt, and low and stable pyruvate dehydrogenase (aceE, aceF) cause pyruvate accumulation which is converted to acetate by pyruvate oxidase B. The behavior of the ppsA, acs, and aceBAK in JM109 was dependent on the glucose supply strategy. When the glucose concentration was high, no transcription of these genes was observed and acetate concentration increased, but at low glucose concentrations these genes were expressed and the acetate concentration decreased. It is possible that there is a major regulatory molecule that controls not only ppsA and aceBAK but also acs. The gluconeogenesis pathway (fbp, pckA, and ppsA) which leads to glycogen accumulation is constitutively active in E. coli BL21 regardless of glucose feeding strategy.