Anaerobic fermentation balance of Escherichia coli as observed by in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Fermenting anaerobic cultures of Escherichia coli were observed by the nonintrusive technique of in vivo, whole-culture nuclear magnetic resonance. Fermentation balances were calculated for hexoses, pentoses, sugar alcohols, and sugar acids. Substrates more reduced than glucose yielded more of the highly reduced fermentation product ethanol, whereas more-oxidized substrates produced more of the less-reduced fermentation product acetate. These relationships were made more obvious by the introduction of ldhA mutations, which abolished lactate production, and delta frd mutations, which eliminated succinate. When grown anaerobically on sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, E. coli produced ethanol in excess of the amount calculated by the standard fermentation pathways. Reducing equivalents must be recycled from formate to account for this excess of ethanol. In mutants deficient in hydrogenase (hydB), ethanol production from sorbitol was greatly decreased, implying that hydrogen gas released from formate by the formate-hydrogen lyase system may be partially recycled, in the wild type, to increase the yield of the highly reduced fermentation product ethanol.