Glucose and alcohol metabolism in Pisum sativum L.

Glucose absorbed by etiolated pea stem segments was partly metabolized into a number of glucosederivatives. Lower aliphatic alcohols when applied to solutions in which the stem segments were incubated, strongly stimulated the formation of these compounds. In addition it was found that the label of absorbed ethanol 1-14C was mainly present in one of these sugar-derivatives, which suggested a glycosylation of the ethanol into ethyl-glucoside. Further evidence of the glycosylation of absorbed lower aliphatic alcohols could be obtained with the aid of enzymatical, chromatographical, microchemical and mass-spectrometrical methods. It is concluded that in etiolated pea stem tissue, glucose will be partly conjugated to lower aliphatic alcohols. If sufficient ethanol is present in the cells, ethyl-p-glucoside becomes the main glucose metabolite.