Page 17 - The Biochemistry of Inorganic Polyphosphates

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INTRODUCTION

More than one hundred years ago, L. Liberman (1890) found high-polymeric inorganic
polyphosphates (PolyPs) in yeast. These compounds are linear polymers containing a few
to several hundred residues of orthophosphate (P i ) linked by energy-rich phosphoanhydride
bonds.
Taking into consideration their significance for all living organisms, inorganic polyphos-
phates may be separated into two groups, namely pyrophosphate and high-molecular-weight
PolyPs, which contain three to several hundred phosphate residues in one molecule. The
functions of pyrophosphate and the enzymes of its metabolism are well distinguished from
those of high-molecular-weight PolyPs and to date have been studied quite thoroughly.
However, the same does not apply to the high-molecular-weight PolyPs. These mysterious
cell components have so far been ignored in most biochemistry manuals. At the same time,
a number of reviews (Harold, 1966; Kulaev and Vagabov, 1983; Wood and Clark, 1988;
Kornberg, 1995; Kulaev, 1994; Kulaev et al., 1999; Kornberg et al., 1999; Kulaev and Ku-
lakovskaya, 2000), including the special issue of Progress in Molecular and Subcellular
Biology (Schr¨oder, H. B. and M¨uller, W. E. G. (Eds), Vol. 23, 1999), have covered many
important aspects of the current research into PolyP biochemistry.
The studies of recent years have greatly changed our ideas of the PolyP function in living
organisms. Previously, it was considered either as ‘molecular fossil’ or as only a phospho-
rus and energy source providing the survival of microorganisms under extreme conditions.
After the obtaining of conclusive evidence that these compounds occur in representatives
of all kingdoms of living organisms, including the higher animals, it became obvious that
PolyPs are necessary for practically all living creatures from different stages of evolution.
One would think that these compounds, in the first place, have a regulatory role, partic-
ipating in metabolism correction and control on both genetic and enzymatic levels. This
is why they have not disappeared in the course of evolution of living organisms on the
Earth. In recent years, first of all by A. Kornberg and his co-workers (Rao and Kornberg,
1996; Kornberg et al., 1999), it has been established that PolyPs are directly related to the
switching-over of the genetic programme characteristic of the logarithmic growth stage
of bacteria to the programme of cell survival under stationary conditions – ‘a life in the
slow lane’.

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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