Utilization of oxalacetate by Acinetobacter calcoaceticus: evidence for coupling between malic enzyme and malic dehydrogenase.

Growth of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus strain BD413 in malate-mineral medium resulted in the excretion of large quantities of oxalacetate. Malate was virtually depleted by the time the cell density reached 60% of its final value; most of the remaining growth took place at the expense of oxalacetate. Experiments in which oxalacetate was used as the initial substrate showed that pyruvate was not utilized until most of the oxalacetate disappeared. The generation time for growth on malate or oxalacetate was approximately 40 min; the generation time for growth on pyruvate was 62 min, which implies that pyruvate transport may be rate limiting. Oxalacetate and pyruvate, however, supported approximately the same growth yield. These observations suggested that the first step in the utilization of oxalacetate as an energy source consisted of an enzymatic decarboxylation of the keto acid to pyruvate and CO(2). Three enzyme reactions that carry out this decarboxylation have been detected in extracts of A. calcoaceticus. The first, which functioned maximally at pH 4.8, was attributable to the oxalacetate decarboxylase activity of oxidized diphosphopyridine nucleotide-malic enzyme. The second and third, which functioned in the neutral pH range, resulted from coupling of oxidized diphosphopyridine nucleotide-malic enzyme to reduced diphosphopyridine nucleotide-dependent malic dehydrogenase, and oxidized triphosphopyridine nucleotide-malic enzyme to a reduced triphosphopyridine nucleotide-dependent malic dehydrogenase. The efficiency of these coupled reactions was high enough so that the overall reaction could be physiologically significant.