[Studies on the initiation of glycogen metabolism in Escherichia coli (author's transl)]

Glycogen biosynthesis was studied in Escherichia coli. An enzyme complex composed of UDP-glucose; protein glucosyltransferase, ADP-glucose: protein glucosyltransferase and ADP-glucose: alpha-1,4 glucan alpha-4-glucosyltransferase was found. Further results revealed that while glycogen concentration remained unchanged, the specific activity of the glucosyltransferase complex increased during the growth phase of the culture. The detergents Lubrol and Brij provoked a decrease of 80% and 20% in the glucose transfer to protein from ADP-glucose and UDP-glucose, respectively. These detergents did not inhibit the glucose incorporation into glycogen by ADP-glucose: alpha-1,4-glucosyltransferase. We postulated that the biosynthesis of glycogen in Escherichia coli could be initiated by two different enzymes which catalyze the transfer of glucose from UDP-glucose or ADP-glucose to an acceptor protien. In a second step, the glucan protein formed is used as primer by the ADP-glucose: alpha-1,4 glucan alpha-1-glucosyltransferase for glycogen formation.