The gram-negative ethanologenic bacterium Zymomonas mobilis is able to grow in media containing high concentrations of glucose or other sugars. A novel compatible solute for bacteria, sorbitol, which enhances growth of Z. mobilis at glucose concentrations exceeding 0.83 M (15%), is described. Added sorbitol was accumulated intracellularly up to 1 M to counteract high external glucose concentrations (up to 1.66 M or 30o). Accumulation of sorbitol was triggered by a glucose upshift (e.g., from 0.33 to 1.27 M or 6 to 23%) and was prevented by the uncoupler CCCP (carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone; 100 tIM). The sorbitol transport system followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics, with an apparent Km of 34 mM and a Vm.. of 11.2 nmol -min-' mg-' (dry mass). Sorbitol was produced by the cells themselves and was accumulated when growing on sucrose (1 M or 36%) by the action of the periplasmic enzyme glucose-fructose oxidoreductase, which converts glucose and fructose to gluconolactone and sorbitol. Thus, Z. mobilis can form and accumulate the compatible solute sorbitol from a natural carbon source, sucrose, in order to overcome osmotic stress in high-sugar media. No other major compatible solute (betaine, proline, glutamate, or trehalose) was detected.The gram-negative, strictly fermentative and ethanologenic bacterium Zymomonas mobilis tolerates high concentrations of both ethanol (up to 13% [24]) and sugar (16,28) in the growth medium. An early report stated that Z. mobilis, (then called Termobacterium mobile), which had been isolated from pulque