The role of futile cycles in the energetics of bacterial growth

In this contribution we describe the occurrence of futile cycles in growing bacteria. These cycles are thought to be active when organisms contain two uptake systems for a particular nutrient (one with a high, the other with a low affinity for its substrate). The high-affinity system is responsible for uptake of the nutrient, some of which is subsequently lost to the medium again via leakage through the low-affinity-system. A special futile cycle is caused under some growth conditions by the extremely rapid diffusion of ammonia through bacterial membranes. When the ammonium ion is taken up via active transport, the couple NH3/NH4+ will act as an uncoupler. This is aggravated by the chemical similarity of the potassium and the ammonium ion, which leads to ammonium ion transport via the Kdp potassium transport system when the potassium concentration in the medium is low. Other examples of futile cycles, such as those caused by the production of fatty acids by fermentation, are briefly discussed.