Chapter VIII Some Applications and Uses of Metabolite Analogues in Microbiology

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the applications and uses of metabolite analogues in microbiology. The chapter describes the numerous ways in which metabolite analogues may be used in microbiology, and the analogues of cell wall constituents or precursors. Analogues that resemble end-product metabolites can act as false feed-back inhibitors of the first enzymes of biosynthetic pathways, or they may repress all the enzymes of these pathways. Mutants resistant to analogues may have developed enzymes so altered as to be no longer sensitive to false feed-back inhibition by the analogue. This property can be used industrially to obtain mutants, which produce large amounts of a desired product. Analogue-resistant mutants may be of help in recognizing the regulatory genes for a given pathway. Investigations of the mechanisms of resistance to various analogues may help in the elucidation of problems of resistance to other drugs. A general characteristic of all toxic analogues is that their action is reversed by the natural metabolite. Although the action of each analogue is reversed by its natural metabolite, antagonism is not always confined to this single metabolite.