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Appl Environ Microbiol. 1969 January; 17(1): 176-178
Copyright © 1969 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Protein Quality of the Bacterium Hydrogenomonas eutropha

^a Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

ABSTRACT

Hydrogenomonas eutropha cells harvested from semicontinuous autotrophic culture and washed free of substrate contain about 13% of nitrogen on a dry-solids basis. Biological value and digestibility of the bacterial nitrogen were determined in the rat by use of an abbreviated Mitchell-Thomas nitrogen balance technique and casein as the standard protein. Casein nitrogen was 99% digestible, and that of both whole boiled and sonically ruptured bacterial cells was 93%. Biological value of casein and the bacterial preparations was uniformly 77%. Amino acid composition of the bacteria, as in the case of casein, indicates a first limitation of sulfur-containing amino acids. These compositional features suggest that H. eutropha may be potentially valuable as a protein supplement in animal feeds.

¹ Present address: Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213.