Distribution of a phosphoenolypyruvate-dependent sugar phosphotransferase system in mycoplasms.

A survey of 10 mycoplasma strains has shown that their capacity to accumulate radioactivity from alpha-methyl-d-glucopyranoside depends on the activity of a phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system (PTS), and that this system endows the organisms with a high affinity for glucose as a fermentation substrate. PTS activity was found in Mycoplasma gallisepticum, M. mycoides var. mycoides, and M. mycoides var. capri, but in none of the fermentative Acholeplasma strains nor in some of the nonfermentative Mycoplasma species. Partial characterization of the PTS of M. mycoides var. capri has shown that, like the PTS of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, it is strictly dependent on phosphoenolpyruvate as a phosphoryl donor and on componenets of both the cytoplasm and the membrane.