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Appl Environ Microbiol, March 1998, p. 1034-1039, Vol. 64, No. 3
Department of Microbiology, University of
Groningen, 9751 NN Haren, The Netherlands
Received 30 September 1997/Accepted 16 December 1997
The kinetics of oxygen reduction by Desulfovibrio
salexigens Mast1 and the role of polyglucose in this activity
were examined and compared with those of strains of D. desulfuricans and D. gigas. Oxidation rates were
highest at air saturation (up to 40 nmol of O2
min
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Oxygen Consumption by Desulfovibrio
Strains with and without Polyglucose
1 mg of protein
1) and declined with
decreasing oxygen concentrations. Studies with cell extracts (CE)
indicated that NADH oxidase was entirely responsible for the oxygen
reduction in strain Mast1. In D. desulfuricans CSN, at
least three independent systems appeared to reduce oxygen. Two were
active at all oxygen concentrations (NADH oxidase and NADPH oxidase),
and one was maximally active at less than 10 µM oxygen. In contrast
to D. gigas and D. salexigens strains, the D. desulfuricans strains also contained NADH peroxidase and
NADPH peroxidase activities and did not accumulate polyglucose under nonlimiting growth conditions. At air saturation, initial activities of
the oxidases and peroxidases of cells harvested at the end of the log
phase were on the order of 20 to 140 nmol of O2
min
1 mg of protein
1. In all strains, these
enzymes were relatively stable but were susceptible to inactivation as
soon as substrates were added to the assay mixture. Under those
conditions, all oxidation activity disappeared after ca. 1 h of
incubation. The same finding was observed with whole cells of D. desulfuricans CSN and D. desulfuricans ATCC 27774, but inactivation was less pronounced with cells of D. salexigens Mast1. It appeared that the presence of polyglucose in
the whole cells retarded the process of inactivation of NADH oxidase,
but this property was lost in crude CE. In spite of the effect of
polyglucose on the oxidative potential, oxygen-dependent growth of
D. salexigens Mast1 could be demonstrated neither in batch
nor in continuous culture.
*
Corresponding author. Present address: Department of
Applied Microbiology, Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden. Phone: 46 46 222 8325. Fax: 46 46 222 4203. E-mail:
ed.van_niel{at}tmb.lth.se.
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