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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2000, p. 2620-2626, Vol. 66, No. 6
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Physiologic Determinants of Radiation Resistance in
Deinococcus radiodurans
Amudhan
Venkateswaran,1
Sara C.
McFarlan,2
Debabrota
Ghosal,1
Kenneth W.
Minton,1
Alexander
Vasilenko,1
Kira
Makarova,1,3,
Lawrence P.
Wackett,2 and
Michael
J.
Daly1,*
Department of Pathology, Uniformed Services
University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland
208141; Department of Biochemistry,
Biological Process Technology Institute and Center for
Biodegradation Research and Informatics, Gortner Laboratory,
University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota
551082; and National Center for
Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National
Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 208943
Received 29 October 1999/Accepted 17 March 2000
Immense volumes of radioactive wastes, which were generated during
nuclear weapons production, were disposed of directly in the ground
during the Cold War, a period when national security priorities often
surmounted concerns over the environment. The bacterium
Deinococcus radiodurans is the most radiation-resistant organism known and is currently being engineered for remediation of the
toxic metal and organic components of these environmental wastes.
Understanding the biotic potential of D. radiodurans and its global physiological integrity in nutritionally restricted radioactive environments is important in development of this organism for in situ bioremediation. We have previously shown that D. radiodurans can grow on rich medium in the presence of continuous
radiation (6,000 rads/h) without lethality. In this study we developed
a chemically defined minimal medium that can be used to analyze growth
of this organism in the presence and in the absence of continuous
radiation; whereas cell growth was not affected in the absence of
radiation, cells did not grow and were killed in the presence of
continuous radiation. Under nutrient-limiting conditions, DNA repair
was found to be limited by the metabolic capabilities of D. radiodurans and not by any nutritionally induced defect in
genetic repair. The results of our growth studies and analysis of the
complete D. radiodurans genomic sequence support the
hypothesis that there are several defects in D. radiodurans global metabolic regulation that limit carbon, nitrogen, and DNA metabolism. We identified key nutritional constituents that restore growth of D. radiodurans in nutritionally limiting
radioactive environments.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Pathology, Rm. B3153, Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences (USUHS), 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814-4799. Phone: (301) 295-3750. Fax: (301) 295-1640. E-mail:
mdaly{at}usuhs.mil.

Permanent address: Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090,
Russia.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2000, p. 2620-2626, Vol. 66, No. 6
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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