| Abstract: | The consumption of 2·25 mg. glucose by a resting suspensionof baker's yeast in the presence of finely graded concentrationsof 3:5 -dinitro-o-cresol was followed at pH 2·4 and 5·0by measuring oxygen uptake and carbon-dioxide output; at pH8·5 oxygen uptake alone was measured. At each pH certainconcentrations of dinitrocresol stimulated respiration and increasedthe ratio of glucose oxidized to glucose assimilated; at higherconcentrations, assimilation was reduced to zero, but respirationbecame inhibited and the whole of the glucose was then metabolizedby aerobic fermentation. Dinitrocresol is believed to be actingin these experiments as an uncoupling agent, lowering the netrate of formation of energy-rich phosphate and so allowing respirationto proceed faster while assimilation, an endergonic process,is inhibited. The maximum respiratory stimulation obtainable at pH 8·5,325 per cent, of the control, is greater than can be obtainedat pH 2·6 or 5·0, which may be due to the slowerrespiration rate of controls at pH 8's. The slow endogenousrespiration can also be stimulated more than the exogenous.With o- and p-nitrophenols similar relations are obtained, butphenol does not stimulate respiration, although it inhibitsassimilation in lower concentrations than respiration. Undernitrogen, a stimulation of fermentation can be obtained withdinitrocresol at pH 5·0 but not at 2·6. At bothpH levels, assimilation is more easily suppressed than fermentationrate. |
