THE ESTERASES OF BAKER'S YEAST. I. ACTIVITY AND LOCALIZATION IN THE YEAST CELL

The activity of esterase in baker's yeast cells and in cell fractions was estimated using 2-oxoglutaric acid diethyl ester, p-nitrophenyl acetate and α- and β-naphthyl acetate as substrates. The esterase hydrolysing 2-oxoglutaric acid ester was shown to be located inside the cell, both directly by an enzymic method and by indirect evidence. The activities of the esterases hydrolysing aryl esters were found to vary greatly with the different substrates and estimation methods used. The presence of esterase activity towards phenyl and naphthyl esters in both cell wall digests and sphaeroplast lysates confirms the localization of at least one esterase in both sides of the plasma membrane barrier. Depending on the method of evaluation, values between 80 and 40% of the total were obtained for the proportion of esterase activity located outside the plasma membrane, the most reliable values being about 50–65%.