Glucose-phosphorylating enzymes of Candida yeasts and their regulation in vivo

Abstract

Three glucose-phosphorylating enzymes having different specificities for glucose and fructose were separated from the cell-free extract of Candida tropicalis by means of ammonium sulfate fractionation and chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and Sephadex G-100. Two of them, which phosphorylated fructose 1.5 times faster than glucose, were designated as hexokinase I and II (ATP : D-hexose 6-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.1.), and the other with very low or no fructose-phosphorylating activity, as glucokinase (ATP : D-glucose 6-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.2). Km values for glucose with both hexokinase I and glucokinase were 0.3 mM, and that for fructose with hexokinase I was 2.2 mM. Time-course changes in the levels of these enzymes in C. tropicalis growing on glucose and on n-alkane revealed that hexokinase was induced specifically by the sugars, while glucokinase was a constitutive enzyme. Addition of cycloheximide to the culture medium prevented the increase in the hexose-phosphorylating activity and in the Fru/Glu ratio (the ratio of enzymatic phosphorylation of fructose to that of glucose) in the cells. Although Candida lipolytica also contained hexokinase and glucokinase, both enzymes seemed to be constitutive.