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Physiological Properties of Nitrogen‐scavenging Bacteria from the Marine Environment
Author(s) -
JONES K. L.,
RHODESROBERTS MURIELE.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
journal of applied bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 0021-8847
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1980.tb04717.x
Subject(s) - bacteria , hydroxylamine , nitrogen , chemostat , glutamine synthetase , ammonia , marine bacteriophage , escherichia coli , glutamine , chemistry , food science , intracellular , strain (injury) , scavenging , biochemistry , biology , microorganism , enzyme , environmental chemistry , amino acid , organic chemistry , genetics , anatomy , gene , antioxidant
Nine selected strains of marine bacteria from the marine environment, although taxonomically heterogeneous in character, exhibited a capacity for prolonged growth on ‘nitrogen‐free’ media; only one strain, a Klebsiella sp., fixed dinitrogen under any of a considerable range of test conditions. The non‐nitrogen‐fixing bacteria were able to scavenge low levels of nitrogenous materials, principally ammonia, from the atmosphere. Contrary to previous suggestions, this growth did not have an abnormally low cellular protein and nitrogen content. Some strains with apparently low intracellular protein contents, as determined on a cellular dry weight basis, showed accumulations of carbonaceous storage products which distorted the cytochemical analyses. Representative strains grown in chemostat culture showed a high affinity (i.e. low Ks values—0.35–0.52 μmol/1) for the NH 4 + ion, compared with Escherichia coli (1.75 μmol/1) and preliminary studies of their glutamine synthetases suggested that the affinities ( K m values—0.25–0.29 μmol/1) of this enzyme for hydroxylamine were similar to the few values reported for other marine bacteria.