Acid levels control formic acid metabolism in bacterium
Saturday, April 16, 2011 - 12:30
in Biology & Nature
Formate, the salt of formic acid, is an important product of metabolism in bacteria and -- in contrast to human metabolism -- a preliminary stage of the gas carbon dioxide, which is released in the combustion of sugar. Enterobacteriaceae, a large family of bacteria, possess the formate channel FocA, a specialized transport protein that transports the negatively charged ion of the formic acid over the cell membrane of the bacteria. Now researchers have succeeded in isolating and crystallizing FocA from the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium at a low pH value.
