Coupling between phosphorylation and flavin adenine dinucleotide reduction with the pyruvate oxidase of L. delbrueckii enzyme.

The pyruvate oxidation system which we found many years ago in Lactobacillus delbrueckii (Bacillus acidificans longissimus, Lafar)l presented a singular case of coupling between oxidation and phosphorylation. In this system, pyruvate was oxidized by a TPP-FAD* enzyme yielding acetyl phosphate and CO2 as products. The reaction was strictly dependent on the presence of inorganic phosphate. recently, the system was studied with a purified in the hope of better analyzing the mechanism of the coupling.