Abstract
The aerobic hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium Alcaligenes latus represented by three strains was found to be able to grow with dinitrogen as the sole nitrogen source: The doubling time of total (Kjeldahl) nitrogen during growth on glucose at 30°C under an atmosphere containing 2% (v/v) oxygen in dinitrogen amounted to 39 h, while that in the presence of ammonium was 3 h. Nitrogen fixation did apparently not occur under air. During diazotrophic growth the cells accumulated up to 75% (w/dry weight) poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid. The efficiency of nitrogen fixation varied between 10 and 15 mg N per g glucose utilized. The specific nitrogenase activity measured in the acetylene reduction assay amounted to 5–17 nmol C2H4 formed per min and mg protein.
References
Biggins DR, Postgate JR (1969) Nitrogen fixation by cultures and cell-free extracts of Mycobacterium flavum 301. J Gen Microbiol 56:181–193
Gogotov JN, Schlegel HG (1974) N2-fixation by chemoautotrophic hydrogen bacteria. Arch Microbiol 97:359–362
Hanus FJ, Maier RJ, Evans HJ (1979) Autotrophic growth of H2-uptake-positive strains of Rhizobium japonicum in an atmosphere supplied with hydrogen gas. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76:1788–1792
Jüttner RR, Lafferty RM, Knackmuss HJ (1975) A simple method for the determination of poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid in microbial biomass. Europ J Appl Microbiol 1:233–237
Malik KA, Claus D (1979) Xanthobacter flavus, a new species of nitrogen-fixing hydrogen bacteria. Intern J Syst Bacteriol 29:283–287
Malik KA, Schlegel HG (1980) Enrichment and isolation of new nitrogen-fixing hydrogen bacteria. FEMS Microbiol Lett 8:101–104
Palleroni NJ, Palleroni AV (1978) Alcaligenes latus, a new species of hydrogen-utilizing bacteria. Int J Syst Bacteriol 28:416–424
Pedrosa FO, Döbereiner J, Yates MG (1980) Hydrogen-dependent growth and autotrophic carbon dioxide fixation in Derxia. J Gen Microbiol 119:547–551
Pinkwart M, Bahl H, Reimer M, Wölfle D, Berndt H (1979) Activity of the H2-oxidizing hydrogenase in different N2-fixing bacteria. FEMS Microbiol Lett 6:177–181
Wiegel J, Schlegel HG (1976) Enrichment and isolation of nitrogen-fixing hydrogen bacteria. Arch Microbiol 107:139–142
Wiegel J, Wilke D, Baumgarten J, Opitz R, Schlegel HG (1978) Transfer of the nitrogen-fixing hydrogen bacterium Corynebacterium autotrophicum Baumgarten et al. to Xanthobacter gen. nov. Int J Syst Bacteriol 28:573–581
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Malik, K.A., Jung, C., Claus, D. et al. Nitrogen fixation by the hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium Alcaligenes latus . Arch. Microbiol. 129, 254–256 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00425261
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00425261