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Hydrogen metabolic pathways of Rhodospirillum rubrum under artificial illumination

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  • Microbiology
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Multiple enzymes involved in hydrogen metabolism have been detected in photosynthetic bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum under various growth conditions. To investigate hydrogen metabolic pathways and the contribution of each pathway to hydrogen photoproduction in R. rubrum under the artificial illumination condition, three mutants were constructed, including nifHanfDG double mutant lacking both Fe-nitrogenase and Mo-nitrogenase, anfDG mutant lacking Fe-nitrogenase and nifHhupL double mutant (uptake hydrogenase deficient mutant). Comparison of the hydrogen production of these 3 mutants with R. rubrum wild type and the uptake hydrogenase deficient mutant showed that there was a third pathway involved in hydrogen production besides Mo-nitrogenase and Fe-nitrogenase, which mainly contributed to hydrogen evolution. Only a small portion of hydrogen was generated by the third pathway. The hydrogen produced by Mo-nitrogenase, Fe-nitrogenase and the third pathway was about 93.5%, 4.9% and 1.5%, respectively, while the hydrogen consumed by uptake hydrogenase was about 13.3%. The investigation of the formate-linked hydrogenase activity indicated that the third pathway for hydrogen production was not mediated by the formate-linked hydrogenase, but probably by some unknown enzyme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Biological Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Agrobiotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    RuiYan Zhu & JiLun Li

  2. College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

    RuiYan Zhu

  3. Engineering Research Center for Bioenergy of Hebei Province, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

    RuiYan Zhu

Authors
  1. RuiYan Zhu
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  2. JiLun Li
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Correspondence to JiLun Li.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2006AA05z108).

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Zhu, R., Li, J. Hydrogen metabolic pathways of Rhodospirillum rubrum under artificial illumination. Chin. Sci. Bull. 55, 32–37 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0706-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0706-1

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