The Metabolism of Inositol 

 in Microorganisms 



A STUDY OF MOLECULAR CONFORMATION 

 AND RIOCHEMICAL REACTIVITY 



BORIS MAGASANIK 



Inositol * was discovered in muscle extract by Scherer a little over 

 100 years ago and identified as a hexahydroxycyclohexane by Ma- 



i 



Scyllitol 



II 

 myo - Inositol 



III 



neo ■ Inositol 



IV 



D - Inositol 



V 

 L- Inositol 



VI 

 epi - Inositol 



VII 



muco - Inositol 



VIII 



alio ■ Inositol 



IX 



Unknown 



Fig. 1. The configurations of the inositols. 



* Two reviews of the chemistry and biological activity of the inositols have 

 appeared in recent years. 1 - 2 In this paper the nomenclature proposed by Fletcher, 

 Anderson, and Lardy (see ref. 2) is used. 



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