Abstract
We examined the impact of exposing natural populations of marine bacteria (from seawater collected near Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA) to multiple nitrogen and carbon sources in a series of batch growth experiments conducted from 1989 through 1990. The substrate C:N ratio (C:Ns) was varied from 1.5:1 to 10:1 either with equal amounts of NH +4 and different amino acids or an amino acid mixture, all supplemented with glucose to maintain the C:Ns ratio equal to that of the respective amino acid, or with combinations of glucose and NH +4 alone. A common feature of the experiments involving amino acids was the concurrent uptake of NH +4 and amino acids that persisted as long as a readily assimilable carbon source (glucose in our case) was taken up. There was no net regeneration of NH +4 , even though catabolism of amino acids occurred. Regeneration of NH +4 was evident only after glucose was completely utilized, which usually occurred at the end of exponential growth. The contribution of15NH +4 to total nitrogen uptake by the end of exponential growth varied from ~60 to 80% when individual amino acids were present and down to ~24% when the amino acid mixture was added. These estimates are conservative because we did not account for possible isotope dilution effects resulting from amino acid catabolism. When NH +4 and glucose were the sole nitrogen and carbon sources, there was a stoichiometric balance between glucose and NH +4 uptake over a wide range of C:Ns ratios, leading to a constant bacterial biomass C:N ratio (C:NB) of ~4.5:1. As a result NH +4 usage varied from 50% when the C:Ns ratio was 3.6:1, to 100% when the C:Ns ratio was 10:1. Gross growth efficiency varied from ~60% when NH +4 plus glucose were added alone or with the amino acid mixture, to 47% when the individual amino acids were used in place of the mixture. It is thus evident that actively growing bacteria will act as sinks for nitrogen when a carbon source that can be assimilated easily is available to balance NH +4 uptake, even when amino acids are available and are being co-metabolized.
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Communicated by J. Grassle, New Brunswick
Contribution No. 7287 from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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Goldman, J.C., Dennett, M.R. Ammonium regeneration and carbon utilization by marine bacteria grown on mixed substrates. Mar. Biol. 109, 369–378 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01313502
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01313502