1 5 Alcohols, Glycols and Compounds Related to Sugars 



tose phosphate cycle. Some bacteria are able to produce alcohol 

 by other means. 



The pyruvate from anaerobic glycolysis can meet a variety of 

 fates. In some cases it is transformed into acetoin and its oxi- 

 dation and reduction products, diacetyl and 2,3-butanediol 

 (thiamine pyrophosphate coenzyme). ct-Acetolactic acid has 

 been shown to be an intermediate in certain instances :- 



•2CO2 



OH OH 

 2,3-Butanediol 



Diacetyl 



Acetoin has been found in yeast, in other fungi and in bac- 

 teria. Large yields of mixtures of these condensation products 

 can be obtained from some bacteria. 



Pyruvate is reduced to D-lactic acid in the homofermentative 

 bacteria and lower phycomycetes (and to L-lactic acid in mam- 

 malian muscle). 



Another reaction of pyruvate is its conversion to acetylcoen- 

 zyme A with the participation of lipoic acid; the probable me- 

 chanism being :^ 



2 Elliot Juni, /. Biol. Chem. 195 715 (1952); Yutaka Kobayashi 

 and George Kalnitsky, ibid. 211 473 (1954). 



^ I. A. Gunsalus, Lois S. Barton and H. Gruber, /. Am. Chem. Soc. 

 78 1763 (1956). 



