Metabolic control of intracellular proteolysis in growing and resting cells of Escherichia coli.

Pine, Martin J. (Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, N.Y.). Metabolic control of intracellular proteolysis in growing and resting cells of Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 92:847-850. 1966.-Protein breakdown was examined in Escherichia coli under varying conditions of growth and during nutritional deprivation. Optimal breakdown rates, estimated over short time periods of protein synthesis and decay, are invariant and unrepressible by any condition of growth or starvation. A more important aspect of metabolic control is manifest in the selection imposed by the physiological state of the cell for breakdown of limited populations of proteins. During the progress of growth, one-half to three-quarters of the protein susceptible in the resting state is progressively spared, and breakdown is continued in populations that are more selected and more frequently regenerated.