Oxygen Isotope Exchange between Metabolites and Water during Biochemical Reactions Leading to Cellulose Synthesis

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cellulose was produced heterotrophically from different carbon substrates by carrot tissue cultures and Acetobacter xylinum (a cellulose-producing bacterium) and by castor bean seeds germinated in the dark, in each case in the presence of water having known concentrations of oxygen-18 (18O). We used the relationship between the amount of 18O in the water and in the cellulose that was synthesized to determine the number and 18O content of the substrate oxygens that exchanged with water during the reactions leading to cellulose synthesis. Our observations support the hypothesis that oxygen isotope ratios of plant cellulose are determined by isotopic exchange occurring during hydration of carbonyl groups of the intermediates of cellulose synthesis.