Page 141 - The Biochemistry of Inorganic Polyphosphates

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THE PECULIARITIES OF

POLYPHOSPHATE

METABOLISM IN

DIFFERENT ORGANISMS

It has become clear in recent years that the metabolism of PolyPs in different organisms,
although partially involving similar pathways, nevertheless possesses certain characteristic
features. In this section, we shall consider the principal features of the more typical aspects
of PolyP metabolism in those organisms, which have been subjected to the closest and most
thorough examination, and for which it is possible to depict, at least in outline, the general
features of PolyP metabolism. Special attention will be paid to the particularly complex,
and as yet little investigated, problem of the intracellular control of PolyP metabolism in
various groups of organisms. In this part of the review, therefore, we shall consider some
specialized aspects of PolyP biochemistry.

8.1 Escherichia coli

8.1.1 The Dynamics of Polyphosphates
under Culture Growth

PolyP metabolism in E. coli is interesting first of all due to the very intensive investigations
of its phosphorus metabolism both in the biochemical and genetic aspects.
The earliest work with this bacterium showed that PolyPs occurred in it in extremely
low amounts, if at all, and were present not continually and often under specific conditions,
usually under growth limitation by some nutrient sources. Indeed, study of the dynamics
of PolyP accumulation during the growth of the wild-type strain E. coli K12 on a mineral

The Biochemistry of Inorganic Polyphosphates I. S. Kulaev, V. M. Vagabov and T. V. Kulakovskaya
C 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd ISBN: 0-470-85810-9

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