A continuous culture study of an ATPase-negative mutant of Escherichia coli

For anaerobic glucose-limited chemostat cultures of Escherichia coli a value of 8.5 was found for Y _ATP ^max . For anaerobic glucose- or ammoniumlimited chemostat cultures of the ATPase-negative mutant M2-6 of E. coli Y _ATP ^max values of 17.6 and 20.0 were found, respectively. From these data it can be concluded that in the wild type during anaerobic growth 51–58% of the total ATP production is used for energetization of the membrane. Using the Y _ATP values obtained in the anaerobic experiments a P/O ratio of 1.46 could be calculated for aerobic experiments with the wild type. It is concluded that from the energy obtained by respiration in wild type E. coli about 60% is used for membrane energetization and only about 40% for the actual formation of ATP. No dramatic difference in the maintenance requirement for ATP or glucose has been observed between glucose- and ammonium-limited chemostat cultures of the mutant. The large difference in maintenance requirement observed for such cultures of the wild type is therefore supposed to be made possible by ATP hydrolysis by the ATPase.