Glucose metabolism and dimorphism in Mucor.

Mucor racemosus fermented glucose to ethanol, carbon dioxide, and glycerol. When this fungus was grown anaerobically in either the yeast or mycelial form, the catabolism of glucose was very similar. Yeast cells shifted to aerobic conditions maintained a high flux of glucose carbon through the glycolytic and pentose phosphate pathways. Mycelial cells grown aerobically catabolized glucose in a manner consistent with a respiratory metabolism. Although there was no consistent pattern of glucose metabolism in the mycelial form of Mucor, growth in the yeast form consistently was correlated with a high flux of glucose carbon through the catabolic pathways.