Regulation of Glucose Metabolism in Growing Yeast Cells

This chapter discusses two distinct groups of yeasts—namely, glucose insensitive and glucose-sensitive yeasts, and indicates that there are possibly differences in internal metabolite concentrations, which may be expressed in the different regulatory responses.

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses two distinct groups of yeasts—namely, glucose insensitive and glucose-sensitive yeasts. It is important to compare both yeast types and to determine whether there exist principal regulatory differences or whether there are distinct steps in the enzyme pattern, which lead to the differences in the response toward glucose. The reason for glucose repression is still obscure. A model is outlined in this review that represents a reasonable working hypothesis, but needs to be verified in the yeast system. The phenomenological similarities of the cells when other limitations are applied need to be investigated with respect to similarities or dissimilarities in the underlying molecular events. The differences discussed in the transport systems indicate that there are possibly differences in internal metabolite concentrations, which in turn may be expressed in the different regulatory responses. These observations require an extension of regulatory studies to the investigation of transport systems with respect to glucose-insensitivity and glucose-sensitivity. The current status of the research on glucose metabolism in yeasts has reached a point where new approaches are needed for elucidation of the different regulatory phenomena.