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Mechanism of the Pasteur Effect

Abstract

THE increase in rate of carbohydrate breakdown in peas in anoxia was earlier associated with decreases in adenosine triphosphate (ATP), oxidized diphosphopyridine nucleotide, 3-phosphoglyceric acid (3-PGA) and phospho-enolpyruvate (PEP) and with increases in adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and fructose- 1,6-diphosphate (FDP)1. The decreases in 3-PGA and PEP were attributed to an acceleration of the metabolism of these compounds initially in anoxia; in consequence a faster rate of production of “glycolytic” ATP was inferred. We suggested that the sugar phosphorylating and glycolytic enzymes were located in an organized structure, which, was effectively more permeable to ADP than to ATP. With such a structure the faster production of “glycolytic” ATP, mentioned above, should result in faster phosphorylations of both glucose and F6P than under aerobic conditions and so glycolysis would be hastened. Moreover, evidence quite different in nature from that just outlined, that is a discrimination in the use of ATP in air and in anoxia, could also be explained in terms of a glycolytic structure.

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BARKER, J., KHAN, M. & SOLOMOS, T. Mechanism of the Pasteur Effect. Nature 211, 547–548 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/211547a0

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