Properties of Streptococcus mutans Ingbritt growing on limiting sucrose in a chemostat: repression of the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase transport system.

Growth of Streptococcus mutans Ingbritt on limiting sucrose in a chemostat at dilution rates of 0.05 to 0.4 h-1 (mean generation time, 14 to 1.7 h) resulted in a heterofermentative pattern of metabolic end products. During fast growth, lactic acid was the major end product, whereas at slower growth rates, acetic and formic acids, as well as ethanol, increased to be major end products. The patterns obtained were similar to those seen with the same organism growing on glucose. The glycolytic rate by washed cells was maximum at the lowest dilution rates and decreased as the cells were made to grow faster. Transport of sucrose, glucose, and fructose via the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system (PTS) was repressed during growth on sucrose after growth on glucose. Uptake rates suggested that sucrose was transported in the PTS as the intact disaccharide. Comparison of the rate of sugar uptake in the chemostat with the rate of PTS activity in the cells at each growth rate indicated that the PTS was capable of supporting growth only at a dilution rate of 0.05 h-1. Growth on sucrose at faster growth rates required the activity of a second transport system, supporting our earlier observations with glucose that S. mutans contains at least two sugar transport systems.