Abstract
IN his second Liversidge Research Lecture before the Royal Society of New South Wales, Prof. W. J. Young discussed the “Functions of Phosphates in Fermentations of Sugar”. Although the production of alcoholic liquors by the fermentation of sugar is older than recorded history, it was only in 1837 that the suggestion was made that the change is due to the living organism yeast. The final proof of this was the work of Pasteur, who showed that the conversion of sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid is a physiological action of the yeast cell. Later on, Buchner discovered that the active principle, or enzyme as it is now called, can be separated from the living cell and will still carry on the action after such separation. Further work has shown that fermentation is a series of chemical reactions in which phosphoric acid plays a part, and during the process compounds between the sugar and phosphoric acid, termed hexosephosphates, are formed. Phosphates play a similar role in other biological processes in which sugars are decomposed to simpler compounds, as, for example, in the animal during muscular activity. During muscular work the animal uses up carbohydrate as a source of energy and this is changed to lactic acid, a process which requires no oxygen. Thus an animal can do a certain amount of work without requiring oxygen, as, for example, in a short sprint race. Oxygen is required later on to remove the lactic acid, hence one goes on panting after the effort is over. Fermentation in yeast and lactic acid production in the animal are thus similar changes, the sugar being decomposed through the same intermediate compounds to alcohol and carbonic acid in the former, and to lactic acid in the latter, and for both phosphates are necessary, and the same sugar phosphates are produced.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Phosphates in Sugar Fermentation. Nature 133, 60 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133060a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133060a0