Augmentation of glycogen synthesis under stringent control in Escherichia coli

When Escherichia coli strain CP78 (rel+) was starved for isoleucine by the addition of valine, the amount of glucose in polymeric form in the cells increased markedly compared to that of the control cells. In contrast, this phenomenon was not seen in strain CP79 (rel-). The increase in CP78 was shown to be due to the increase of glycogen. These results indicate that glycogen synthesis was augmented under stringent control. This was confirmed using other isogenic pairs of rel+ and rel- strains starved for other amino acids. When the cultivation temperature of strains 10B601 (rel+) and 10B602 (rel-) possessing temperature-sensitive valyl-tRNA synthetase was shifted from 30 degrees C to 40 degrees C, no difference was observed in the response of glycogen synthesis between the two strains. These results indicate that protein synthesis was necessary for the augmentation of glycogen synthesis and that guanosine 5'-diphosphate 3'-diphosphate did not exert its effect through stimulation of the activity of pre-existing enzyme(s) involved in glycogen synthesis. These conclusions were supported by the results of experiments using chloramphenicol and rifampicin. The rates of glucose utilization of CP78 and CP79 were decreased to nearly the same extent by valine addition. This suggests that the regulation site of glycogen synthesis under stringent control resides in a step after the transport of glucose by the phosphotransferase system.