C3-carboxylation as an anaplerotic reaction in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase-deficient Corynebacterium glutamicum

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCx) has recently been found to be dispensable as an anaplerotic enzyme for growth and lysine production of Corynebacterium glutamicum. To clarify the role of the glyoxylate cycle as a possible alternative anaplerotic sequence, defined PEPCx- and isocitrate-lyase (ICL)-negative double mutants of C. glutamicum wild-type and of the l-lysine-producing strain MH20-22B were constructed by disruption of the respective genes. Analysis of these mutants revealed that the growth on glucose and the lysine productivity were identical to that of the parental strains. These results show that PEPCx and the glyoxylate cycle are not essential for growth of C. glutamicum on glucose and for lysine production and prove the presence of another anaplerotic reaction in this organism. To study the anaplerotic pathways in C. glutamicum further, H13CO3--labeling experiments were performed with cells of the wild-type and a PEPCx-negative strain growing on glucose. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of threonine isolated from cell protein of both strains revealed the same labeling pattern: about 37% 13C enrichment in C-4 and 3.5% 13C enrichment in C-1. Since the carbon backbone of threonine corresponds to that of oxaloacetate, the label in C-4 of threonine positively identifies the anaplerotic pathway as a C3-carboxylation reaction that also takes place in the absence of PEPCx.