Carbohydrate metabolism of Bacillus larvae.

In recent years considerable attention has been paid to the elucidation of pathways of carbohydrate breakdown differing from that of the well-known Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas (EMP) scheme. Although it is recognized that the stepwise oxidation of glucose via gluconate with or without preliminary phosphorylation is an important means by which a number of aerobic bacteria obtain their energy (Barron and Friedemann, 1941; Entner and Doudoroff, 1952; Wood and Schwerdt, 1953) no data are available in this respect concerning Bacillus larvae, the causative agent of American foulbrood, a disease of the larvae of the honeybee. The present study was undertaken therefore to determine the manner in which this organism utilizes glucose. Stone and Werkman (1937) obtained small amounts of phosphoglyceric acid from glucose dissimilation by Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus mycoides in the presence of sodium flouride. Aeration of the culture favored formation of this ester. Dedonder and Noblesse (1953) concluded that the hexosemonophosphate oxidative pathway was of importance to B. subtilis and Bacillus megaterium on the basis of triphosphopyridine nucleotide reduction by extracts of these two organisms and by the formation of pentoses from hexosephosphate. Gary et al. (1954), working with the Marburg strain of B. subtilis, showed that the nutritional environment of the cells affected the relative activity of the enzymes of the EMP and the hexosemonophosphate (HMP) pathways.