Carbon dioxide metabolism by Actinomyces viscosus: pathways for succinate and aspartate production.

14C-labeled bicarbonate was incorporated into trichloroacetic acid-insoluble material by cell suspensions of A. viscosus strain M100 and also into the four-carbon fermentation product, succinate, but not into the three-carbon fermentation product, lactate. The initial step in the conversion of 14C-labeled bicarbonate into both trichloroacetic acid-insoluble material and succinate was catalyzed by the enzyme phosphoenolypyruvate carboxylase, which served to convert the glycolytic intermediate, phosphoenolpyruvate, and bicarbonate to the four-carbon compound, oxalacetate. The metabolic fate of oxalacetate was its conversion to either trichloroacetic acid-insoluble material or succinate. One pathway by which oxalacetate may be metabolized into acid-insoluble material is via its conversion to the biosynthetic precursor aspartate by the action of glutamate aspartate aminotransferase. One source of the alpha-amino group of aspartate was the ammonium ion, which could be incorporated into glutamate, the substrate of the glutamate aspartate aminotransferase reaction, by the action of a reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase whose reducing equivalents could be derived from the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-dependent oxidative reactions of the hexose monophosphate pathway catalyzed by glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase. Alternatively, oxalacetate was converted to the fermentation product, succinate, through the sequential action of malate dehydrogenase, fumarase, and succinic dehydrogenase. The resolution and partial purification of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, glutamate aspartate aminotransferase, glutamate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, fumarase, and succinic dehydrogenase are also reported.