Iron-Utilization System in Vibrio vulnificus M2799.

Vibrio vulnificus is a Gram-negative pathogenic bacterium that causes serious infections in humans and requires iron for growth. A clinical isolate, V. vulnificus M2799, secretes a catecholate siderophore, vulnibactin, that captures ferric ions from the environment. In the ferric-utilization system in V. vulnificus M2799, an isochorismate synthase (ICS) and an outer membrane receptor, VuuA, are required under low-iron conditions, but alternative proteins FatB and VuuB can function as a periplasmic-binding protein and a ferric-chelate reductase, respectively. The vulnibactin-export system is assembled from TolCV1 and several RND proteins, including VV1_1681. In heme acquisition, HupA and HvtA serve as specific outer membrane receptors and HupB is a sole periplasmic-binding protein, unlike FatB in the ferric-vulnibactin utilization system. We propose that ferric-siderophore periplasmic-binding proteins and ferric-chelate reductases are potential targets for drug discovery in infectious diseases.

VuuB and IutB reduce ferric-vulnibactin in Vibrio vulnificus M2799.

Vibrio vulnificus, a pathogenic bacterium that causes serious infections in humans, requires iron for growth. Clinical isolate, V. vulnificus M2799, secretes a catecholate siderophore, namely, vulnibactin, to capture iron (III) from the environment. Growth experiments using a deletion mutant indicated that VuuB, a member of the FAD-containing siderophore-interacting protein family, plays a crucial role in Fe3+-vulnibactin reduction. IutB, a member of the ferric-siderophore reductase family, stands a substitute for VuuB in its absence. It remained unclear why V. vulnificus M2799 has two proteins with relevant functions. Here we biochemically characterized VuuB and IutB using purified recombinant proteins. Purified VuuB, a flavoprotein, catalyzed the reduction of Fe3+-nitrilotriacetic acid as its electron acceptor, in the presence of NADH as its electron donor and FAD as its cofactor. IutB catalyzed the reduction of Fe3+-nitrilotriacetic acid, in the presence of NADH, NADPH, or reduced glutathione as its electron donor. The optimal pH values and temperatures of VuuB and IutB were 7.0 and 37 °C, and 8.5 and 45 °C, respectively. On analyzing their ferric-chelate reductase activities, both VuuB and IutB were found to catalyze the reduction of Fe3+-aerobactin, Fe3+-vibriobactin, and Fe3+-vulnibactin. When the biologically relevant substrate, Fe3+-vulnibactin, was used, the levels of ferric-chelate reductase activities were similar between VuuB and IutB. Finally, the mRNA levels were quantified by qRT-PCR in M2799 cells cultivated under low-iron conditions. The number of vuuB mRNA was 8.5 times greater than that of iutB. The expression ratio correlated with the growth of their mutants in the presence of vulnibactin.

Taurine does not affect the composition, diversity, or metabolism of human colonic microbiota simulated in a single-batch fermentation system.

Accumulating evidence suggests that dietary taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) exerts beneficial anti-inflammatory effects in the large intestine. In this study, we investigated the possible impact of taurine on human colonic microbiota using our single-batch fermentation system (Kobe University Human Intestinal Microbiota Model; KUHIMM). Fecal samples from eight humans were individually cultivated with and without taurine in the KUHIMM. The results showed that taurine remained largely undegraded after 30 h of culturing in the absence of oxygen, although some 83% of the taurine was degraded after 30 h of culturing under aerobic conditions. Diversity in bacterial species in the cultures was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, revealing that taurine caused no significant change in the diversity of the microbiota; both operational taxonomic unit and Shannon-Wiener index of the cultures were comparable to those of the respective source fecal samples. In addition, principal coordinate analysis indicated that taurine did not alter the composition of bacterial species, since the 16S rRNA gene profile of bacterial species in the original fecal sample was maintained in each of the cultures with and without taurine. Furthermore, metabolomic analysis revealed that taurine did not affect the composition of short-chain fatty acids produced in the cultures. These results, under these controlled but artificial conditions, suggested that the beneficial anti-inflammatory effects of dietary taurine in the large intestine are independent of the intestinal microbiota. We infer that dietary taurine may act directly in the large intestine to exert anti-inflammatory effects.

Biotransformation of ferulic acid to protocatechuic acid by Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 21420 engineered to express vanillate O-demethylase.

Ferulic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamic acid, FA) is a lignin-derived phenolic compound abundant in plant biomass. The utilization of FA and its conversion to valuable compounds is desired. Protocatechuic acid (3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid, PCA) is a precursor of polymers and plastics and a constituent of food. A microbial conversion system to produce PCA from FA was developed in this study using a PCA-producing strain of Corynebacterium glutamicum F (ATCC 21420). C. glutamicum strain F grown at 30 °C for 48 h utilized 2 mM each of FA and vanillic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acid, VA) to produce PCA, which was secreted into the medium. FA may be catabolized by C. glutamicum through proposed (I) non-ß-oxidative, CoA-dependent or (II) ß-oxidative, CoA-dependent phenylpropanoid pathways. The conversion of VA to PCA is the last step in each pathway. Therefore, the vanillate O-demethylase gene (vanAB) from Corynebacterium efficiens NBRC 100395 was expressed in C. glutamicum F (designated strain FVan) cultured at 30 °C in AF medium containing FA. Strain C. glutamicum FVan converted 4.57 ± 0.07 mM of FA into 2.87 ± 0.01 mM PCA after 48 h with yields of 62.8% (mol/mol), and 6.91 mM (1064 mg/L) of PCA was produced from 16.0 mM of FA after 12 h of fed-batch biotransformation. Genomic analysis of C. glutamicum ATCC 21420 revealed that the PCA-utilization genes (pca cluster) were conserved in strain ATCC 21420 and that mutations were present in the PCA importer gene pcaK.

Production of protocatechuic acid by Corynebacterium glutamicum expressing chorismate-pyruvate lyase from Escherichia coli.

Protocatechuic acid (3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid; PCA) serves as a building block for polymers and pharmaceuticals. In this study, the biosynthetic pathway for PCA from glucose was engineered in Corynebacterium glutamicum. The pathway to PCA-employed elements of the chorismate pathway by using chorismate-pyruvate lyase (CPL) and 4-hydroxybenzoate hydroxylase (4-HBA hydroxylase). As C. glutamicum has the potential to synthesize the aromatic amino acid intermediate chorismate and possesses 4-HBA hydroxylase, we focused on expressing Escherichia coli CPL in a phenylalanine-producing strain of C. glutamicum ATCC21420. To secrete PCA, the gene (ubiC) encoding CPL from E. coli was expressed in C. glutamicum ATCC 21420 (strain F(UbiC)). The formation of 28.8 mg/L of extracellular 4-HBA (36 h) and 213 ± 29 mg/L of extracellular PCA (80 h) was obtained by the C. glutamicum strain F(UbiC) from glucose. The strain ATCC21420 was also found to produce extracellular PCA. PCA fermentation was performed using C. glutamicum strain F(UbiC) in a bioreactor at the optimized pH of 7.5. C. glutamicum F(UbiC) produced 615 ± 2.1 mg/L of PCA from 50 g/L of glucose after 72 h. Further, fed-batch fermentation of PCA by C. glutamicum F(UbiC) was performed with feedings of glucose every 24 h. The maximum production of PCA (1140.0 ± 11.6 mg/L) was achieved when 117.0 g/L of glucose was added over 96 h of fed-batch fermentation.

3-Amino-4-hydroxybenzoic acid production from sweet sorghum juice by recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum.

The production of the bioplastic precursor 3-amino-4-hydroxybenzoic acid (3,4-AHBA) from sweet sorghum juice, which contains amino acids and the fermentable sugars sucrose, glucose and fructose, was assessed to address the limitations of producing bio-based chemicals from renewable feedstocks. Recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum strain KT01 expressing griH and griI derived from Streptomyces griseus produced 3,4-AHBA from the sweet sorghum juice of cultivar SIL-05 at a final concentration (1.0 g l(-1)) that was 5-fold higher than that from pure sucrose. Fractionation of sweet sorghum juice by nanofiltration (NF) membrane separation (molecular weight cut-off 150) revealed that the NF-concentrated fraction, which contained the highest concentrations of amino acids, increased 3,4-AHBA production, whereas the NF-filtrated fraction inhibited 3,4-AHBA biosynthesis. Amino acid supplementation experiments revealed that leucine specifically enhanced 3,4-AHBA production by strain KT01. Taken together, these results suggest that sweet sorghum juice is a potentially suitable feedstock for 3,4-AHBA production by recombinant C. glutamicum.

Development of bio-based fine chemical production through synthetic bioengineering.

Fine chemicals that are physiologically active, such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, flavoring agents as well as additives for foods, feed, and fertilizer are produced by enzymatically or through microbial fermentation. The identification of enzymes that catalyze the target reaction makes possible the enzymatic synthesis of the desired fine chemical. The genes encoding these enzymes are then introduced into suitable microbial hosts that are cultured with inexpensive, naturally abundant carbon sources, and other nutrients. Metabolic engineering create efficient microbial cell factories for producing chemicals at higher yields. Molecular genetic techniques are then used to optimize metabolic pathways of genetically and metabolically well-characterized hosts. Synthetic bioengineering represents a novel approach to employ a combination of computer simulation and metabolic analysis to design artificial metabolic pathways suitable for mass production of target chemicals in host strains. In the present review, we summarize recent studies on bio-based fine chemical production and assess the potential of synthetic bioengineering for further improving their productivity.

Disruption of pknG enhances production of gamma-aminobutyric acid by Corynebacterium glutamicum expressing glutamate decarboxylase.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a building block of the biodegradable plastic polyamide 4, is synthesized from glucose by Corynebacterium glutamicum that expresses Escherichia coli glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) B encoded by gadB. This strain was engineered to produce GABA more efficiently from biomass-derived sugars. To enhance GABA production further by increasing the intracellular concentration of its precursor glutamate, we focused on engineering pknG (encoding serine/threonine protein kinase G), which controls the activity of 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (Odh) in the tricarboxylic acid cycle branch point leading to glutamate synthesis. We succeeded in expressing GadB in a C. glutamicum strain harboring a deletion of pknG. C. glutamicum strains GAD and GAD ∆pknG were cultured in GP2 medium containing 100 g L(-1) glucose and 0.1 mM pyridoxal 5'-phosphate. Strain GAD∆pknG produced 31.1 ± 0.41 g L(-1) (0.259 g L(-1) h(-1)) of GABA in 120 hours, representing a 2.29-fold higher level compared with GAD. The production yield of GABA from glucose by GAD∆pknG reached 0.893 mol mol(-1).

Thermal stability and starch degradation profile of α-amylase from Streptomyces avermitilis.

Amylases from Streptomyces are useful in the production of maltooligosaccharides, but they have weak thermal stability at temperatures higher than 40 °C. In this study, α-amylase (SAV5981 gene of Streptomyces avermitilis) was expressed from Streptomyces lividans 1326 and purified by ammonium sulfate fractionation followed by anionic chromatography (Q-HP sepharose). The properties of the purified SAV5981 amylase were determined by the starch-iodine method. The effect of metal ions on amylase activity was investigated. The optimal temperature shifted from 25 to 50 °C with the addition of the Ca(2+) ion. The thermal stability of SAV5981 was also dramatically enhanced by the addition of 10 mM CaCl2. Improvement of the thermal stability of SAV5981 was examined by CD spectra in the presence and the absence of the Ca(2+) ion. Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) analysis and HPLC analysis of starch degradation revealed that SAV5981 mainly produced maltose and maltotriose, not glucose. The maltoorigosaccharide-producing amylase examined in this study has the potential in the industrial application of oligosaccharide production.

p-Hydroxycinnamic acid production directly from cellulose using endoglucanase- and tyrosine ammonia lyase-expressing Streptomyces lividans.

BACKGROUND: p-Hydroxycinnamic acid (pHCA) is an aromatic compound that serves as a starting material for the production of many commercially valuable chemicals, such as fragrances and pharmaceuticals, and is also used in the synthesis of thermostable polymers. However, chemical synthesis of pHCA is both costly and harmful to the environment. Although pHCA production using microbes has been widely studied, there remains a need for more cost-effective methods, such as the use of biomass as a carbon source. In this study, we produced pHCA using tyrosine ammonia lyase-expressing Streptomyces lividans. In order to improve pHCA productivity from cellulose, we constructed a tyrosine ammonia lyase- and endoglucanase (EG)-expressing S. lividans transformant and used it to produce pHCA from cellulose. RESULTS: A Streptomyces lividans transformant was constructed to express tyrosine ammonia lyase derived from Rhodobacter sphaeroides (RsTAL). The transformant produced 786 or 736 mg/L of pHCA after 7 days of cultivation in medium containing 1% glucose or cellobiose as the carbon source, respectively. To enhance pHCA production from phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (PASC), we introduced the gene encoding EG into RsTAL-expressing S. lividans. After 7 days of cultivation, this transformant produced 753, 743, or 500 mg/L of pHCA from 1% glucose, cellobiose, or PASC, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: RsTAL-expressing S. lividans can produce pHCA from glucose and cellobiose. Similarly, RsTAL- and EG-expressing S. lividans can produce pHCA from glucose and cellobiose with excess EG activity remaining in the supernatant. This transformant demonstrated improved pHCA production from cellulose. Further enhancements in the cellulose degradation capability of the transformant will be necessary in order to achieve further improvements in pHCA production from cellulose.

A review of enzymes and microbes for lignocellulosic biorefinery and the possibility of their application to consolidated bioprocessing technology.

The biorefinery manufacturing process for producing chemicals and liquid fuels from biomass is a promising approach for securing energy and resources. To establish cost-effective fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass, the consolidation of sacccharification and fermentation processes is a desirable strategy, but requires the development of microorganisms capable of cellulose/hemicellulose hydrolysis and target chemical production. Such an endeavor requires a large number of prerequisites to be realized, including engineering microbial strains with high cellulolytic activity, high product yield, productivities, and titers, ability to use many carbon sources, and resistance to toxic compounds released during the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass. Researchers have focused on either engineering naturally cellulolytic microorganisms to improve product-related properties or modifying non-cellulolytic organisms with high product yields to become cellulolytic. This article reviews recent advances in the development of microorganisms for the production of renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels, as well as ethanol, from lignocellulosic materials through consolidated bioprocessing.

Robust production of gamma-amino butyric acid using recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum expressing glutamate decarboxylase from Escherichia coli.

Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) is a component of pharmaceuticals, functional foods, and the biodegradable plastic polyamide 4. Here, we report a simple and robust system to produce GABA from glucose using the recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum strain GAD, which expresses GadB, a glutamate decarboxylase encoded by the gadB gene of Escherichia coli W3110. As confirmed by HPLC analysis, GABA fermentation by C. glutamicum GAD cultured at 30°C in GABA Production 1 (GP1) medium containing 50 g/L glucose without the addition of glutamate yielded 8.07 ± 1.53 g/L extracellular GABA after 96 h. Addition of 0.1mM pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) was found to enhance the production of GABA, whereas Tween 40 was unnecessary for GABA fermentation. Using the optimized GABA Production 2 (GP2) medium, which contained 50 g/L glucose and 0.1mM PLP, fermentation was performed in a flask at 30°C with 10% (v/v) seed culture of C. glutamicum GAD. GABA was produced in the culture supernatant with a yield of 12.37 ± 0.88 g/L after 72 h with a space-time yield of 0.172 g/L/h, which is the highest yield obtained to date for GABA from fermentation with glucose as a main carbon source.

Development of a glutathione production process from proteinaceous biomass resources using protease-displaying Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Glutathione is a valuable tri-peptide that is widely used in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. Glutathione is produced industrially by fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and supplementation of fermentation with several amino acids can increase intracellular GSH content. More recently, however, focus has been given to protein as a resource for biofuel and fine chemical production. We demonstrate that expression of a protease on the cell surface of S. cerevisiae enables the direct use of keratin and soy protein as a source of amino acids and that these substrates enhanced intracellular GSH content. Furthermore, fermentation using soy protein also enhanced cell concentration. GSH fermentation from keratin and to a greater extent from soy protein using protease-displaying yeast yielded greater GSH productivity compared to GSH fermentation with amino acid supplementation. This protease-displaying yeast is potentially applicable to a variety of processes for the bio-production of value-added chemicals from proteinaceous biomass resources.

Characterization of the mannitol catabolic operon of Corynebacterium glutamicum.

Corynebacterium glutamicum encodes a mannitol catabolic operon, which comprises three genes: the DeoR-type repressor coding gene mtlR (sucR), an MFS transporter gene (mtlT), and a mannitol 2-dehydrogenase gene (mtlD). The mtlR gene is located upstream of the mtlTD genes in the opposite orientation. In spite of this, wild-type C. glutamicum lacks the ability to utilize mannitol. This wild-type phenotype results from the genetic regulation of the genes coding for mannitol transport and catalytic proteins mediated by the autoregulated MtlR protein since mtlR mutants grow on mannitol as the sole carbon source. MtlR binds to sites near the mtlR (two sites) and mtlTD promoters (one site downstream of the promoter), with the consensus sequence 5'-TCTAACA-3' being required for its binding. The newly discovered operon comprises the three basic functional elements required for mannitol utilization: regulation, transport, and metabolism to fructose, further processed to the common intermediate of glycolysis fructose-6-phosphate. When relieved from MtlR repression, C. glutamicum, which lacks a functional fructokinase, excretes the fructose derived from mannitol and imports it by the fructose-specific PTS. In order to use mannitol from seaweed biomass hydrolysates as a carbon source for the production of useful commodity chemicals and materials, an overexpression system using the tac promoter was developed. For congruence with the operon, we propose to rename sucR as the mtlR gene.

Cinnamic acid production using Streptomyces lividans expressing phenylalanine ammonia lyase.

Cinnamic acid production was demonstrated using Streptomyces as a host. A gene encoding phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) from Streptomyces maritimus was introduced into Streptomyces lividans, and its expression was confirmed by Western blot analysis. After 4 days cultivation using glucose as carbon source, the maximal level of cinnamic acid reached 210 mg/L. When glycerol (30 g/L) was used as carbon source, the maximal level of produced cinnamic acid reached 450 mg/L. In addition, using raw starch, xylose or xylan as carbon source, the maximal level of cinnamic acid reached 460, 300, and 130 mg/L, respectively. We demonstrated that S. lividans has great potential to produce cinnamic acid as well as other aromatic compounds.

Glutamate production from ß-glucan using endoglucanase-secreting Corynebacterium glutamicum.

We demonstrate glutamate production from ß-glucan using endoglucanase (EG)-expressing Corynebacterium glutamicum. The signal sequence torA derived from Escherichia coli K12, which belongs to the Tat pathway, was suitable for secreting EG of Clostridium thermocellum using C. glutamicum as a host. Using the torA signal sequence, endoglucanase from Clostridium cellulovorans 743B was successfully expressed, and the secreted EG produced 123 mg of reducing sugar from 5 g of ß-glucan at 30 °C for 72 h, which is the optimal condition for C. glutamicum growth. Subsequently, glutamate fermentation from ß-glucan was carried out with the addition of Aspergillus aculeatus ß-glucosidase produced by recombinant Aspergillus oryzae. Using EG-secreting C. glutamicum, 178 mg/l of glutamate was produced from 15 g of ß-glucan. This is the first report of glutamate fermentation from ß-glucan using endoglucanase-secreting C. glutamicum.

Regulation of the expression of phosphoenolpyruvate: carbohydrate phosphotransferase system (PTS) genes in Corynebacterium glutamicum R.

The phosphoenolpyruvate : carbohydrate phosphotransferase system (PTS) catalyses the transport of carbohydrates by coupling carbohydrate translocation and phosphorylation. In Corynebacterium glutamicum R, the genes ptsH and ptsI encode general components of the PTS, and genes ptsF, ptsS and ptsG each encode fructose-, sucrose- and glucose-specific components of the PTS, respectively. In this study, we examined the mRNA levels of the pts genes in the presence or absence of PTS sugars. Glucose elevated the expression of ptsG, ptsH and ptsI genes, whereas fructose and sucrose induced the expression of all the pts genes examined, i.e. ptsF, -S, -G, -H and -I. We determined the transcriptional start sites of the pts genes and found that these promoters were activated in the presence of fructose. Disruption of fruR, which is a deoxyribonucleoside repressor (DeoR)-type transcriptional regulator co-transcribed with ptsF, resulted in enhanced induction of the fructose-pts operon, ptsI, and ptsH expression in response to fructose, indicating that FruR attenuates the induction of ptsI, ptsH and fructose-pts by fructose.

Comparative analysis of the Corynebacterium glutamicum group and complete genome sequence of strain R.

The complete genome sequence of Corynebacterium glutamicum strain R was determined to allow its comparative analysis with other corynebacteria. The biology of corynebacteria was explored by refining the definition of the subset of genes that constitutes the corynebacterial core as well as those characteristic of saprophytic and pathogenic ecological niches. In addition, the relative scarcity of corynebacterial sigma factors and the plasticity of their two-component system machinery reflect their relatively exacting nutritional requirements and reduced membrane-associated and secreted proteins. The conservation of key genes and pathways between corynebacteria, mycobacteria and Nocardia validates the use of C. glutamicum to study fundamental processes that are conserved in slow-growing mycobacteria, including pathogenesis-associated mechanisms. The discovery of 39 novel genes in C. glutamicum R that have not been previously reported in other corynebacteria supports the rationale for sequencing additional corynebacterial genomes to better define the corynebacterial pan-genome and identify previously undetected metabolic pathways in these organisms.

High-throughput transposon mutagenesis of Corynebacterium glutamicum and construction of a single-gene disruptant mutant library.

A simple and high-throughput transposon-mediated mutagenesis system employing two different types of transposons in combination with direct genomic DNA amplification and thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR (TAIL-PCR) was developed. Each of the two minitransposons based on IS31831 (ISL3 family) and Tn5 (IS4 family) was integrated into the Corynebacterium glutamicum R genome. By using BLAST and Perl, transposon insertion locations were automatically identified based on the sequences of TAIL-PCR products of mutant cells. Insertion locations of 18,000 mutants were analyzed, and a comprehensive insertion library covering nearly 80% of the 2,990 open reading frames of C. glutamicum R was generated. Eight thousand of the mutants, exhibiting disruption in 2,330 genes, survived on complex medium under normal laboratory conditions, indicating that the genes were not essential for cell survival. Of the 2,330 genes, 30 exhibited high similarity to essential genes of Escherichia coli or Bacillus subtilis. This approach could be useful in furthering genetic understanding of cellular life and facilitating the functional analysis of microorganisms.

Corynebacterium glutamicum glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase isoforms with opposite, ATP-dependent regulation.

Corynebacterium glutamicum gapA and gapB encode glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenases (GAPDHs) that differ in molecular weight and activity in the presence of ATP. Comparative genome analysis revealed that GapA, the product of gapA, represented the canonical GAPDH that is highly conserved across the three major life forms. GapB, with an additional 110-residue-long sequence upstream of its GAPDH-specific domain, was homologous only to select microbial putative GAPDHs. Upon gene disruption, the initial growth rates of the wild-type, DeltagapA and DeltagapB strains on glucose (0.77, 0.00 and 0.76 h(-1), respectively), lactate (0.20, 0.18 and 0.15 h(-1), respectively), pyruvate (0.39, 0.29 and 0.20 h(-1), respectively), and acetate (0.06, 0.06 and 0.04 h(-1), respectively), implied that GapA was indispensable for growth on glucose, that GapB, but not GapA, affected early growth on acetate, and that GapB had a greater influence on growth under gluconeogenic conditions than GapA. The disruption of either gapA or gapB showed no significant effect on the transcription of any of the other gap cluster genes although it led to reduced triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) activities. Glycolytic GAPDH activity at low in vitro ATP concentrations was solely attributed to the 35.9-kDa GapA. At higher ATP concentrations, the same activity was attributed to the 51.2-kDa GapB. Both enzymes, however, exhibited similar NADP-dependent GAPDH activities at the higher ATP concentrations. In effect therefore, the GAPDH-catalyzed reaction at low ATP concentrations was irreversible, with all the glycolytic activity strictly NAD-dependent and attributed to GapA. At higher ATP concentrations, the reaction was reversible, with glycolytic activity NAD- or NADP-dependent and attributed to GapB, while gluconeogenic activity was attributable to both GapA and GapB.