The concentration of amino acids by yeast cells depleted of adenosine triphosphate

1. The ATP content of preparations of a strain of Saccharomyces carlsbergensis was lowered below 0.3nmol/mg of yeast by starving the yeast cells in the presence of both antimycin and 5mm-deoxyglucose. 2. When the depleted cells were put at pH4.5 with glycine up to about 20nmol of the amino acid/mg of yeast was absorbed without being chemically modified. The mechanism did not depend on an exchange with endogenous amino acids. 3. The concentration of the absorbed glycine could apparently reach 100–200 times that outside the cells. 4. Replacement of the cellular K⁺ by Na⁺ almost stopped amino acid absorption in the presence of antimycin and deoxyglucose, but not in their absence. 5. It is suggested that, when energy metabolism itself had stopped, a purely physical process, namely the movements of H⁺ and K⁺ into and out of the yeast respectively, served to concentrate the amino acids in the cells. Both ionic species appear to be co-substrates of the system transporting amino acids.