Regulation of glycolysis in heterotrophic cell suspension cultures of Chenopodium rubrum in response to proton fluxes at the plasmalemma

The present experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of increased fluxes of H⁺ across the plasmalemma on glycolysis in heterotrophic cell suspension cultures of Chenopodium rubrum L. (1) Increased H⁺ influx was produced by adding glucose, 6-deoxyglucose, 2-deoxyglucose, or sodium fluoride. The net influx decreased to zero after 3 min. This recovery was accompanied by an increase in the rate of O₂ uptake, but not of dark CO₂ fixation. When glucose or fluoride were added, the increase of O₂ uptake occurred without a decrease in the ATP/ADP ratio, and was large enough to provide the ATP that would be needed for compensatory H⁺ extrusion via the plasmalemma H⁺-ATPase. When 2-deoxyglucose was added, the rise of respiration was restricted by sequestration of phosphate and depletion of phosphorylated metabolites, the ATP/ADP ratio declined, and a slow net H⁺ influx started again after 4 min. (2) Alkalinisation of the medium to induce an H⁺ efflux resulted in rapid activation of dark CO₂ fixation, but not of O²-uptake. (3) A stimulation of respiration or dark CO₂ fixation was always accompanied by a decrease of phosphoenolpyruvate. This shows that the primary sites for regulation of glycolysis are pyruvate kinase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, respectively. (4) There was no consistent relation between glycolytic flux and triose-phosphates or hexose-phosphates. This shows that the reactions involved in carbohydrate mobilisation and the conversion of hexose-phosphates to triose-phosphates only have a secondary role in stimulation of glycolysis. (5) Phosphofructokinase will be stimulated as a consequence of the decrease in phosphoenolpyruvate. (6) The increase in glycolytic flux occurred independently of (in the case of 2-deoxyglucose and fluoride), or before (in the case of glucose), any increase of fructose-2,6-bisphosphate. When fructose-2,6-bisphosphate did increase (after supplying glucose), this was accompanied by an increase of triose-phosphate and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, which otherwise remained very low. It is argued that fructose-2,6-bisphosphate increases as a consequence of the decrease of glycerate-3-phosphate, a known inhibitor of the synthesis of this regulator metabolite. However, activation of pyrophosphate fructose-6-phosphate phosphotransferase by fructose-2,6-bisphosphate does not play an obligatory role in the stimulation of glycolysis.