Structure and properties of the phosphoenolpyruvate: glucose phosphotransferase system of oral streptococci.

The presence of three distinct enzymes II that catalysed the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphorylation of glucose, fructose, and mannose was established in membranes of glucose-grown cells of Streptococcus salivarius 25975 and various strains of Streptococcus mutans. The enzyme II mannose phosphorylated mainly mannose, glucose, and 2-deoxyglucose, and the enzyme II glucose phosphorylated glucose, alpha-methylglucoside, and 2-deoxyglucose. The phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphorylation of glucose and alpha-methylglucoside by isolated membrane of wild-type or EII mannose negative mutant cells did not require the presence of any soluble protein other than enzyme I and the phosphocarrier protein HPr. This result suggested that oral streptococci do not possess a soluble factor III glucose. The enzyme II activities varied as a function of the growth sugar but were not coordinately regulated. The variation elicited by specific sugars was not identical for all the strains tested. Nevertheless, in the case of the S. mutans strains, growth at the expense of lactose always caused a significant decrease in the level of enzyme II activities. Finally, experiments conducted with EII mannose negative mutants and also with a pseudorevertant isolated from one of these mutants indicated that the preferential utilization of glucose over lactose by cells growing in mixtures depended on the presence of the EII mannose, but not on glucose-derived metabolites.