Summary
Cultures of Thiomicrospira pelophila, Thiobacillus thioparus and Thiobacillus neapolitanus were grown in thiosulfate-limited chemostats in a mineralsthiosulfate medium with and without organic supplements. Acetate, succinate and mixtures of amino acids increased the dry weight by 12–24% and the protein by 11–38%. Addition of both acetate and succinate had a cumulative effect. Saccharose, glucose, fructose, ribose, glycerol, glycerate, pyruvate, lactate or malate were without effect. The increase in dry weight of T. neapolitanus by 14C-acetate was directly related to the relative contribution of this compound to the total cell carbon.
In CO2-limited cultures of T. neapolitanus the effects of acetate on dry weight and protein were similar to those found in thiosulfate-limited cultures. In CO2-limited cultures of T. pelophila a combination of acetate and succinate caused an increase in dry weight of 27% and of 50% in protein, the increase in protein being twice as high as in thiosulfate-limited cultures.
There were no measurable differences in the activities of ribulosediphosphate carboxylase (RudPcase) in cell free extracts obtained from thiosulfate- or CO2-limited cultures of T. pelophila or T. neapolitanus grown in the presence or absence of organic compounds. In T. pelophila the RudPcase activity was almost constant at all growth rates tested, and independent of the type of growth-limitation. For T. neapolitanus the specific RudPcase activity varied slightly with the growth rate. In CO2-limited cultures the activity was three times that found in thiosulfate-limited cultures, thus showing that the RudPcase activity can be influenced by nutritional conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aleem, M. I. H., Huang, E.: Carbondioxide fixation and carboxydismutase in Thiobacillus novellus. Biochem. biophys. Res. Commun. 20, 515–520 (1965)
Harder, W., Veldkamp, H.: A continuous culture study of an obligately psychrophilic Pseudomonas species. Arch. Mikrobiol. 59, 123–130 (1967)
Hempfling, W. P., Vishniac, W.: Yield coefficients of Thiobacillus neapolitanus in continuous culture. J. Bact. 93, 874–878 (1967)
Kelly, D. P.: The incorporation of acetate by the chemoautotroph Thiobacillus neapolitanus strain C. Arch. Mikrobiol. 58, 99–116 (1967)
Kelly, D. P.: Autotrophy: Concepts of lithotrophic bacteria and their organic metabolism. Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 25, 177–210 (1971)
Kuenen, J. G.: Een studie van kleurloze zwavelbacteriën uit het Groninger wad. Ph. D. thesis, Groningen 1972
Kuenen, J. G., Veldkamp, H.: Thiomicrospira pelophila, nov. gen., nov. sp., a new obligately chemolithotrophic colourless sulfur bacterium. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 38, 241–256 (1972)
LéJohn, H. B., Van Caeseele, L., Lees, H.: Catabolite repression in the facultative chemoautotroph Thiobacillus novellus. J. Bact. 94, 1484–1491 (1967)
London, J., Rittenberg, S. C.: Effect of organic matter on the growth of Thiobacillus intermedius. J. Bact. 91, 1062–1069 (1966)
Pan, P. C., Umbreit, W. W.: Growth of obligate autotrophic bacteria on glucose in a continuous flow-through apparatus. J. Bact. 109, 1149–1155 (1972)
Pearce, J., Leach, C. K., Carr, N. G.: The incomplete tricarboxylic acid cycle in the blue-green alga Anabaena variabilis. J. gen. Microbiol. 55, 371–378 (1969)
Peeters, T., Liu, M. S., Aleem, M. I. H.: The tricarboxylic acid cycle in Thiobacillus denitrificans and Thiobacillus A 2. J. gen. Microbiol. 64, 29–35 (1970)
Rittenberg, S. C.: The roles of exogenous organic matter in the physiology of chemolithotrophic bacteria. In: A. H. Rose and J. F. Wilkinson, Eds.: Advances in microbial physiology, vol. 3, pp. 159–196. New York-London: Academic Press 1969
Saxena, J., Vishniac, W.: Influence of organic acids on the growth of Thiobacillus neapolitanus. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 36, 109–118 (1970)
Silver, R. S., Mateles, R. I.: Control of mixed-substrate utilization in continuous cultures of Escherichia coli. J. Bact. 97, 535–543 (1969)
Smith, A. J., London, J., Stanier, R. Y.: Biochemical basis of obligate autotrophy in blue-green algae and thiobacilli. J. Bact. 94, 972–983 (1967)
Sörbo, B.: A colorimetric method for the determination of thiosulfate. Biochim. biophys. Acta (Amst.) 23, 412–416 (1957)
Tabita, R., Lundgren, D. G.: Utilization of glucose and the effect of organic compounds on the chemolithotroph Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. J. Bact. 108, 328–333 (1971)
Taylor, B. F., Hoare, D. S., Thiobacillus denitrificans as an obligate chemolithotroph. II. Cell suspensions and enzymic studies. Arch. Mikrobiol. 80, 262–276 (1971)
Taylor, B. F., Hoare, D. S., Hoare, S. L.: Thiobacillus denitrificans as an obligate chemolithotroph. Isolation and growth studies. Arch. Mikrobiol. 78, 193–204 (1971)
Trudinger, P. A.: The metabolism of inorganic sulphur compounds by thiobacilli. Rev. Pure and Appl. Chem. 17, 1–24 (1967)
Veldkamp, H., Kuenen, J. G.: The chemostat as a model system for ecological investigations. In: T. Rosswall, Ed. Modern methods in the study of microbial ecology, pp. 347–355. Stockholm: Swedish Natural Science Research Council 1973
Vishniac, W., Santer, M.: The thiobacilli. Bact. Rev. 21, 195–213 (1957)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kuenen, J.G., Veldkamp, H. Effects of organic compounds on growth of chemostat cultures of Thiomicrospira pelophila, Thiobacillus thioparus and Thiobacillus neapolitanus . Archiv. Mikrobiol. 94, 173–190 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00416691
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00416691