out of an accidental discover) concerning one oi 1 1 1 * - 

 oldest organic-chemical industries, the production oi 

 alcohol li\ the fermentative action oi yeasl on 

 \ trai sitii I i arbohydrates through phosphate coin- 

 pounds to the end produi tsoi the fermentation process 

 was found, and ii gradually proved to be .1 kind "I 

 model foi .1 hosl ol biological processes. 



Specify phosphates were thus found to be indis- 

 pensable for life. In reverse, the wrong kind oi 

 phosphates can destroy life Asa result, an impo 

 pari of the new pi use in phosphorus histor) consisted 

 in the stud) and use oi antibiotic phosphorus 

 1 pi lunds. 



Phosphates in Biological Processes 



The first indication tliat phosphorus is important 

 for life came from the experience that plants take it 

 up from the substances in the soil. They incorporate 

 it in their bod) substance. What makes phosphorus 

 so important that they cannot grow without it? The 

 next insight u,h that animals acquire it from their 

 plant food. It is then ton ml in I hhks. in fat and nerve 

 tissue, in all cells and particularly in the cell nuclei. 

 What arc its functions there? 



The answers to such questions were developed from 

 the study of a long-known process, the conversion of 

 Carbohydrates into carbon dioxide and alcohol In 

 yeast. It started with Eduard Buchner's discover) of 

 1890, that fermentation is produced In a preparation 

 from yeast in which all li\ ing cells have been removed. 

 When yeast is dead-ground and pressed out. the juice 

 vtill has the abilit) to produce fermentation. 



It is strange, hut in man) ways characteristic lor 

 the proi ace, that the "riddle" of phosphoi us 



in life was sohed by lirst eliminating life. In such 

 '"lifeless" fermentations. Arthur Harden found that 

 the conversion of sugar begins w ith the formation of a 

 hexose phosphate (1904). The "ferment" of yeast, 

 called zymase, proved t<> !>■■ .1 composite of several 

 enzymes. Hans von Euler-Chelpin isolated one pari 



of zymase, which remains active even alter heating 



its solution to the boiling point. From 1 kilogram of 

 yeast, he obtained 20 milligrams of this heat-stable 

 enzyme, which he called cozymase and identified as 

 a nucleotide composed of a purine, a sugar, and 

 phosphoric aeid.' In the years between the two 

 World Wars, zymase was further resolved into more 



38 K. Lohmann, NatuTwissenschqften (Berlin, 1929), vol. 17, 

 p. 624; (' II Fism .mil Y. Subbarow, Science (Washington, 



I"."' . M.I. 70, p. 181 f. 



PAPER 40: HISTORY OF I'H( ISI'HORLS 



Figure 20. Fritz A. Lipmann il>. 1899) 

 shared with Hans Adolf Krebs the Nobel 

 Prize in Medicine and Physiolog) in 1953 

 in: his work on coenzyme A. lie dis- 

 ci ai etyl phosphate as the substance 

 in bacteria, w hich transfers phosphate 10 

 adenylii aeid. 



enzymes, one of them the coenzyme I. which was 



shown to he ADP connected with another molecule 



hi ribose attached to the amide of nicotinic acid, or 

 diphosphop) ridine nucleol i< li 



A_ c 



Ml' 



:ONHi 



I 

 H— C— 



N- 

 I 

 H— C- 



XvX 



H— c— oil I 

 

 H— C— OH 



H— C— OH i 







H— C— OH I 



H— C- 



() H— C- 



CH S 



-P— O— P— O- < H. 



I 



()- oil 

 Coenzv me 1 



197 



