%0 Journal Article %A Petzel, James P. %A Hartman, Paul A. %A Allison, Milton J. %T Pyrophosphate-Dependent Enzymes in Walled Bacteria Phylogenetically Related to the Wall-Less Bacteria of the Class Mollicutes† %D 1989 %J International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, %V 39 %N 4 %P 413-419 %@ 1466-5034 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/00207713-39-4-413 %I Microbiology Society, %X Abstract Some of the wall-less bacteria of the class Mollicutes (mycoplasmas) have pyrophosphate (PPi)-dependent enzymic activities, including PPi-dependent phosphofructokinase (PPi-PFK), PPi-dependent nucleoside kinase, and pyruvate, orthophosphate dikinase (PPDK) activities. In most other bacteria, adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP), not PPi, is the cofactor of analogous enzymic reactions. Because PPi-dependent enzymes are more common among mollicutes than other bacteria, we describe here an examination of the six walled bacteria that have been reported to be phylogenetically related to the mollicutes (Clostridium innocuum, Clostridium ramosum, Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, Lactobacillus catenaformis, Lactobacillus vitulinus, and Streptococcus pleomorphus) for PPi-PFK, ATP-dependent PFK, phosphoenolpyruvate car boxy transphosphorylase, PPDK, and PPi- and ATP-dependent acetate kinases. Two anaerobic mollicutes, Anaeroplasma intermedium and Asteroleplasma anaerobium, were also tested. C. innocuum, E. rhusiopathiae, S. pleomorphus, and Anaeroplasma intermedium had PPi-PFK activities, whereas C. ramosum, the two lactobacilli, and Asteroleplasma anaerobium had only ATP-dependent PFK activities. Asteroleplasma anaerobium and all of the walled bacteria except E. rhusiopathiae had PPDK activities. All of the species except Asteroleplasma anaerobium and E. rhusiopathiae also had pyruvate kinase activities; the effects of allosteric activators were tested. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxytransphosphorylase was detected by using two methods in C. innocuum, C. ramosum, and S. pleomorphus. All of the species tested had ATP-dependent acetate kinase activities, but none had detectable PPi-dependent acetate kinase activity. The occurrence of one or more PPi-dependent enzymes in the mollicutes and their walled relatives is a phenotypic indicator of the phylogenetic relatedness of these organisms. The distribution of these enzymes among members of this group substantiates the subgroups proposed by other workers who used 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid analysis. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/00207713-39-4-413