Inactivation of active glucose transport in Candida wickerhamii is triggered by exocellular glucose

Abstract Under conditions of derepression the yeast Candida wickerhamii formed a high-affinity glucose proton symport. Glucose and glucose analogues induced inactivation of the glucose proton symport and its interconversion into a low-affinity facilitated diffusion system. The specific inactivation rate increased with the concentration of the inactivating sugar and did not obey saturation kinetics. This dependence was still pronounced at sugar concentrations far above saturation of the glucose transport systems. This suggested that the inactivation and interconversion mechanism was triggered by interaction of the inactivating sugar with receptor sites located on the cell surface.