Energy coupling to active transport in anaerobically grown mutants of Escherichia Coli K12

1. Anaerobic uptake of proline requires either the presence of a coupled Mg²⁺-stimulated adenosine triphosphatase or anaerobic electron transport. 2. Anaerobic uptake of glutamine does not require anaerobic electron transport even in the absence of a coupled Mg⁺2-stimulated adenosine triphosphatase. 3. These results support previous suggestions [Berger (1973) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 70, 1514––1518; Berger & Heppel (1974) J. Biol. Chem. 249, 7747-7755; Kobayashi, Kin & Anraku (1974) J. Biochem. (Tokyo) 76, 251-261] that two distinct mechanisms of energy coupling to active transport exist in Escherichia coli in that energization of anaerobic proline uptake requires the ‘high-energy membrane state’, whereas the energization of anaerobic glutamine uptake does not.