[Polyphosphate and ATP content of Propionibacterium shermanii cells in nitrogen starvation]

When Propionibacterium shermanii was cultivated in a medium with glucose under the conditions of nitrogen deficiency, the content of high molecular weight polyphosphates (salt-soluble fraction, alkali-soluble fraction, and fraction extracted with hot perchloric acid) decreased. In contrast, it rose in a medium with lactate within two and three days of starvation. The culture growth stopped after a day under these conditions, the energy substrate was assimilated during the entire process of starvation, and the content of ATP continuously decreased. When ammonium sulfate was added after two and three days of starvation, the intracellular content of polyphosphates (in all of the three fractions) increased in the medium with glucose. If ammonium sulfate was added after three days of starvation in the medium with lactate, the content of polyphosphates rose in the fraction extracted with hot perchloric acid while the content of salt-soluble and alkali-soluble polyphosphates decreased. The culture started to grow again and the content of ATP in its cells rose abruptly when ammonium sulfate was added under these conditions. If the culture was grown in the medium with glucose and ammonium sulfate, the content of acid-insoluble polyphosphates increased twofold during the first day and dropped to the initial level by the third day of growth.