Accumulation of intracellular inorganic sulfate by Penicillium chrysogenum.

The cell membranes of microorganisms appear to be rather complex, metabolically active entities, equipped with many specific active transport mechanisms which mediate the uptake and accumulation of a variety of compounds. Bacteria have been shown to accumulate amino acids (Cohen and Rickenberg, 1956; Gale, 1947; 1953), carbohydrates (Cohen and Monod, 1957; Rickenberg et al., 1956), and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell and Moyle, 1953; Mitchell, 1954) against apparent concentration gradients. Still more recent reports suggest the presence of specific permease systems for acetylornithine (Vogel, 1960) and citrate (Waterbury and MacDonald, 1960) in bacteria. Except for the recent studies of the galactoside permease system, very little is understood about the mechanism of these active transport systems. This paper presents evidence for a sulfatetransfer mechanism in strains of Penicillium chrysogenum. One high penicillin-yielding mutant, strain 51-20F3, has been shown to be able to accumulate inorganic sulfate within its mycelium to a concentration of 25 to 35 mM.