Thermostability of glycolytic enzymes from thermophilic clostridia

The relative heat stabilities of the glycolytic enzymes and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase from autolysates of the mesophile C. pasteiirianum and the two thermophiles C. tartarivorum and C. thermosaccharolyticum are compared. Pyruvate kinase from all three organisms is quite stable at elevated temperatures. All other enzymes studied from the thermophiles show less susceptibility to heat inactivation than the corresponding enzymes from the mesophile.

Thiamine triphosphate deficiency in subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy

Extracts of tissue fluids from a patient with subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy inhibit thiamine pyrophosphate-adenosine triphosphate phosphotransferase of rat brain. Brain tissue from the patient, in contrast to normal brain tissue, contained essentially no thiamine triphosphate, although thiamine and its other phosphate esters were present in normal concentrations. These findings suggest a relation between this disease and thiamine triphosphate.