Why superoxide imposes an aromatic amino acid auxotrophy on Escherichia coli. The transketolase connection.

The lack of superoxide dismutase and the consequent elevation of [O2-] imposes, on Escherichia coli, auxotrophies for branched chain, sulfur-containing, and aromatic amino acids. The former two classes of auxotrophies have already been explained, whereas the third is explained herein. Thus O2- is shown to interfere with the production of erythrose-4-phosphate, which is essential for the first step of the aromatic biosynthetic pathway. It does so by oxidizing the 1, 2-dihydroxyethyl thiamine pyrophosphate intermediate of transketolase and inactivating this enzyme.