title: Pyruvate metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
abstract: In yeasts, pyruvate is located at a major junction of assimilatory and dissimilatory reactions as well as at the branch-point between respiratory dissimilation of sugars and alcoholic fermentation. This review deals with the enzymology, physiological function and regulation of three key reactions occurring at the pyruvate branch-point in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae: (i) the direct oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate to acetyl-CoA, catalysed by the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, (ii) decarboxylation of pyruvate to acetaldehyde, catalysed by pyruvate decarboxylase, and (iii) the anaplerotic carboxylation of pyruvate to oxaloacetate, catalysed by pyruvate carboxylase. Special attention is devoted to physiological studies on S. cerevisiae strains in which structural genes encoding these key enzymes have been inactivated by gene disruption.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology an Enzymology, Kluyver Laboratory of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Pronk
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yde Steensma
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Van Dijken
mesh_terms: D000079:Acetaldehyde / Q000378:metabolism; D000105:Acetyl Coenzyme A / Q000378:metabolism; D003653:Decarboxylation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010071:Oxaloacetates / Q000378:metabolism; D011768:Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex / Q000235:genetics; D019289:Pyruvic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010071:Oxaloacetates; D011768:Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex; D000105:Acetyl Coenzyme A; D019289:Pyruvic Acid; D000079:Acetaldehyde