Abstract
THE importance of phosphorus in metabolism, both in its inorganic and organic forms, had long been recognised, but a new chapter in the understanding of vital reactions was opened by the discovery at the Lister Institute of the part played by compounds of phosphoric acid and sugar in the process of alcoholic fermentation. The painstaking researches of Harden and his assistants, begun just thirty years ago, have proved beyond doubt that the complex series of reactions which take place when sugar is fermented to carbon dioxide and alcohol involve at an early stage the formation of several phosphoric esters: it is these which break down to simpler products, setting free the phosphoric acid to take part once more in the series of reactions. From beer to bones is at first a far cry, but such has in fact been the sequence of discovery, for the knowledge of hexose phosphates, and the enzymes which serve to build and to destroy them, has enabled Robison to elucidate very largely the mechanism of bone formation. His achievement is no small one; it began with the discovery of an enzyme in the bones of young rats capable of decomposing phosphoric esters and so precipitating phosphoric acid salts in situ.
The Significance of Phosphoric Esters in Metabolism.
By Prof. Robert Robison. (Christian A. Herter Lectureship on Pathological Chemistry, New York University.) Pp. ix + 104 + 8 plates. (New York: New York University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1932.) 8s. 6d. net.
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A., E. The Significance of Phosphoric Esters in Metabolism. Nature 132, 803 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132803a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132803a0