Jashore University of Science and Technology

Department of microbiology

An assignment on

Pathways for utilization of sugars other than

glucose: starch, cellulose, maltose, sucrose,
lactose.

Course code: MBIO-2101

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Adib Hasan Md. Shazid Hasan

Roll no: 180337
2nd year 1st semester
Department of Microbiology
Jashore University of Science and
and Technology
Lecturer
Department of Microbiology
Jashore University of Science
and Technology

Submission Date: 24/03/2020

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index
Utilization of sugars other than glucose……………………………………………………….02

Starch utilization……………………………………………………………………………………….02

Cellulose utilization……………………………………………………………………………………03

Maltose utilization……………………………………………………………………………………..05

Sucrose utilization……………………………………………………………………………………..06

Lactose utilization……………………………………………………………………………………...07
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Utilization of sugars other than glucose

Glucose is the preferred carbon source for most of the common heterotrophic bacteria.
Nevertheless, microorganisms possess remarkable versatility in their ability to use a wide
range of other compounds as sources of carbon and energy.
But other sugars such as starch, cellulose, sucrose, maltose, lactose are also often utilized by
bacteria. The guiding motif in the metabolism of these sugars is economy: instead of
completely separate degradative pathways, there are short adapter pathways which merge into
the main pathway of carbohydrate degradation, that is, glycolysis.

Utilization of Starch:
Starch is one of the most abundant disaccharides. It is a mixture of 25% amylose and 75%
amylopectin.
Amylose consists of long, un branched chains of glucose in α-(1, 4) linkage with the ring
oxygen atoms all on the same side. Although not truly soluble in water, amylose forms
hydrated micelles in which the polysaccharide chain forms a helical coil.
By comparison, amylopectin is a highly branched form of starch in which the backbone
consists of glucose chains in α-(1, 4) linkage with α-(1, 6) linkages at the branch points.
Glycogen, the main storage compound in animal cells, is comparable to amylopectin in that
the main backbone also consists of glucose units in α-(1, 4) linkage but with more frequent α-
(1, 6) branches.

Figure: starch structure

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Starch can be degraded by hydrolysis:

 Amylose can be hydrolyzed by α-amylase, which cleaves the α-(1, 4) linkages to yield
a mixture of α-glucose and α-maltose.
Amylose is also hydrolyzed by β-amylase, liberating β-maltose in stepwise fashion
from the non-reducing end of the molecule. Thus βamylases invert the configuration
at the C-1 position during cleavage of the α (1, 4)- glucosidic bond, whereas α-
amylases retain the αconfiguration at the C-1 position.
 These enzymes also hydrolyze amylopectin or glycogen to yield glucose, maltose, and
a highly branched core, limit dextrin. A debranching enzyme, α-(1, 6)-glucosidase, is
capable of hydrolyzing the α-(1, 6) linkages in limit dextrin. The combined action of
α-(1, 6)- glucosidase and α-amylase is required to completely degrade amylopectin or
glycogen to glucose and maltose. Thus, αamylases are endoenzymes that can bypass
the α-(1, 6) branch points of amylopectin, whereas β-amylases are exoenzymes that
cannot hydrolyze amylopectin internally to the α-(1,6) branch points.

 The enzymes that break down or hydrolyze starch into the constituent sugars are
known as amylases.
Alpha-amylases are found in plants and in animals. Human saliva is rich in amylase,
and the pancreas also secretes the enzyme. Individuals from populations with a high-
starch diet tend to have more amylase genes than those with low-starch diets;
Beta-amylase cuts starch into maltose units. This process is important in the digestion
of starch and is also used in brewing, where amylase from the skin of seed grains is
responsible for converting starch to maltose (Malting, Mashing).

Utilization of Cellulose:
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula (C6H10O5) a polysaccharide consisting of
a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β (1→4) linked D-glucose units.
Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants, many
forms of algae and the oomycetes. Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms.
Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth.
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Figure: Cellulose structure

Cellulolysis is the process of breaking down cellulose into smaller polysaccharides called
cellodextrins or completely into glucose units; this is a hydrolysis reaction. Because cellulose
molecules bind strongly to each other, cellulolysis is relatively difficult compared to the
breakdown of other polysaccharides.

Cellulose degradation requires the combined activities of three basic types of enzymes .

 Initially, an endo-β-1, 4-glucanase cleaves cellulose to smaller

oligosaccharides with free-chain ends.
 Then exo -β-1, 4-glucanases remove disaccharide cellobiose units from either
the reducing or non reducing ends of the oligosaccharide chains.
 Cellobiose is then hydrolyzed to glucose by β-glucosidases. These cellulolytic
enzymes may be produced as extracellular proteins by organisms such as
Trichoderma or Phanaerochete (filamentous fungi), or by Cellulomonas,
Microbispora, or Thermomonaspora (Actinomycetes). Rumen bacteria such as
Ruminococcus flavofaciens and Fibrobacter succinogenes, or gram-positive
anaerobes such as Clostridium thermocellum, C. cellulovorans, orC.
Cellulolyticum , produce a cell-bound multienzyme complex called the
cellulosome.
 Glucose is found as the end product of this enzymatic reaction and easily
utilized.
 A wide diversity of actively cellulolytic organisms is important in industrial
applications, in the rumen of animals, and in the digestive systems of
arthropods that degrade wood. Termites and other arthropods that degrade
wood owe their ability to digest cellulose to the presence of specific microbial
symbionts in their digestive tract.
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Figure: cellulose converted into glucose units

Utilization of Maltose:
Maltose is a disaccharide formed from two units of glucose joined with an α(1→4) bond. In
the isomer isomaltose, the two glucose molecules are joined with an α(1→6) bond. Maltose is
the two-unit member of the amylose homologous series, the key structural motif of starch.

Utilization of maltose, a disaccharide of glucose, by E. coli requires the expression of genes

concerned with maltose uptake and induction of amylomaltase and maltodextrin
phosphorylase . Expression of these genes is induced by maltose and is mediated indirectly
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by the malT activator. The cAMP receptor protein (CRP) binds to cAMP and positively
regulates the malT gene and the malEGF operon. The MalT protein mediates the action of
cAMP-CRP on malPQ genes. Amylomaltase hydrolyzes maltose with the production of D-
glucose andthe polysaccharide maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is converted to G-1-P by
maltodextrin phosphorylase. With the isomerization of G-1-P to G-6-P by
phosphoglucomutase, both products are utilized via the EMP pathway. Similar systems for
the utilization of maltose are active in a number of other organisms.

Utilization of Sucrose:
It is a disaccharide, a molecule composed of two monosaccharides: glucose and fructose.
Sucrose is produced naturally in plants, from which table sugar is refined. It has the
molecular formula C12H22O11.

Hydrolysis:
Sucrose is utilized mainly by hydrolysis, which converts it into simple sugar Glucose and
Fructose. This however occurs so slow that Sucrose can’t stay fresh for long time with
negligible change. The enzyme Sucrase is needed for fast hydrolysis.

Figure: Hydrolysis of Sucrose

By now, several sucrose utilization pathways have been identified and characterized. Among
them, the pathway consists of sucrose permease and sucrose phosphorylase is an energy-
conserving sucrose utilization pathway because it consumes less ATP when comparing to
other known pathways. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens NK-1 strain can use sucrose as the
feedstock to produce poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA), a highly valuable biopolymer. The native
sucrose utilization pathway in NK-1 strain consists of phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent
phosphotransferase system and sucrose-6-P hydrolase and consumes more ATP than the
energy-conserving sucrose utilization pathway.
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Utilization of Lactose:
Lactose is a large sugar molecule that is made up of two smaller sugar molecules, glucose
and galactose. It is mainly found in milk or milk-like object. In order for lactose to be
absorbed from the intestine and into the body, it must first be split into glucose and galactose.

Lactose utilization is the primary function of lactic acid bacteria used in industrial dairy
fermentations. The mechanism by which lactose is transported determines largely the
pathway for the hydrolysis of the internalized disaccharide and the fate of the glucose and
galactose moieties. Beta-Galactosidase enzyme is used to separate Glucose and Galactose
from Lactose.

Figure: Utilization of lactose

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References:
http://watcut.uwaterloo.ca/webnotes/Metabolism/OtherSugars.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltose

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucrose

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose

https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/chemistry/organic-
chemistry/cellulose

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtt5317rDoAhXzX3wKHQe
MCuAQPAgH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12934-017-0712-y

Microbial Physiology. Albert G. Moat, John W. Foster and Michael P. Spector.pdf (10th
Chapter