Effect of glucose on the biosynthesis of the membranes of bacillus

In the presence of glucose in complex media, the following changes in the characters of the membranes of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus cereus were observed. (1) The activity of succinate dehydrogenase and the amount of cytochromes of the membranes were greatly reduced. (2) The ratio of lipid to protein in the membranes was decreased and a membrane subfraction, which had a density of around 1.2 (B. subtilis) and 1.24 g/cm³ (B. cereus), was newly formed (B. subtilis) or increased (B. cereus). (3) The phospholipid and diglyceride contents in the membranes were reduced.Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of proteins of the two types (plus and minus glucose) of the membranes show that the patterns were very different between the two types of membranes, though the lost or newly formed membrane protein components were not observed.The cytochrome content was not increased when the cells were grown in glucose medium supplemented with haemin, therefore, glucose or its metabolite may not be involved in the inhibition of haem biosynthesis.