On 2018 Jan 05, Martine Crasnier-Mednansky commented:

All data in this paper should be discarded simply because the strains used by the authors are not what the authors think they are, as explained below.

An Escherichia coli strain lacking PEP synthase does not grow on pyruvate. In fact, the crucial role of PEP synthase during growth on pyruvate is well documented. In brief, mutant strains were isolated which could grow on glucose or acetate but not on pyruvate; it was found they lacked PEP synthase (see Cooper RA, 1967 for an early paper). Furthermore, because the PEP synthase gene (ppsA) is transcriptionally positively regulated by the fructose repressor FruR (Geerse RH, 1986, also known as Cra), fruR mutant strains are routinely checked for their inability to grow on pyruvate. Therefore, data (in supplementary Fig. 1) indicating wild type and ppsA strains grow equally well on pyruvate are incorrect; the strain used by the authors is not a ppsA strain.

The ptsI strain also does not appear to be a ptsI strain, as it grows on xylose as well as a wild type strain (figure 3b), it should not; growth on xylose requires cAMP, which requires the phosphorylated form of Enzyme IIA^Glc.

On 2018 Jan 05, Martine Crasnier-Mednansky commented:

All data in this paper should be discarded simply because the strains used by the authors are not what the authors think they are, as explained below.

An Escherichia coli strain lacking PEP synthase does not grow on pyruvate. In fact, the crucial role of PEP synthase during growth on pyruvate is well documented. In brief, mutant strains were isolated which could grow on glucose or acetate but not on pyruvate; it was found they lacked PEP synthase (see Cooper RA, 1967 for an early paper). Furthermore, because the PEP synthase gene (ppsA) is transcriptionally positively regulated by the fructose repressor FruR (Geerse RH, 1986, also known as Cra), fruR mutant strains are routinely checked for their inability to grow on pyruvate. Therefore, data (in supplementary Fig. 1) indicating wild type and ppsA strains grow equally well on pyruvate are incorrect; the strain used by the authors is not a ppsA strain.

The ptsI strain also does not appear to be a ptsI strain, as it grows on xylose as well as a wild type strain (figure 3b), it should not; growth on xylose requires cAMP, which requires the phosphorylated form of Enzyme IIA^Glc.