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Lithotrophic growth ofSulfurospirillum deleyianum with sulfide as electron donor coupled to respiratory reduction of nitrate to ammonia

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Abstract

Sulfurospirillum deleyianum grew in batch culture under anoxic conditions with sulfide (up to 5 mM) as electron donor, nitrate as electron acceptor, and acetate as carbon source. Nitrate was reduced to ammonia via nitrite, a quantitatively liberated intermediate. Four moles of sulfide were oxidized to elemental sulfur per mole nitrate converted to ammonia. The molar growth yield per mole sulfide consumed, Ym, was 1.5±0.2 g mol−1 for the reduction of nitrate to ammonia. By this type of metabolism,S. deleyianum connected the biogeochemical cycles of sulfur and nitrogen. The sulfur reductase activity inS. deleyianum was inducible, as the activity depended on the presence of sulfide or elemental sulfur during cultivation with nitrate or fumarate as electron acceptor. Hydrogenase activity was always high, indicating that the enzyme is constitutively expressed. The ammonia-forming nitrite reductase was an inducible enzyme, expressed when cells were cultivated with nitrate, nitrite, or elemental sulfur, but repressed after cultivation with fumarate.

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Abbreviations

<S 0}:

Biogenic elemental sulfur

S 8R :

Crystalline elemental sulfur

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fakultät Biologie, Universität Konstanz, D-78434, Konstanz, Germany

    Effi Eisenmann, Joachim Beuerle, Klaus Sulger, Peter M. H. Kroneck & Wolfram Schumacher

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  1. Effi Eisenmann
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  2. Joachim Beuerle
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  3. Klaus Sulger
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  4. Peter M. H. Kroneck
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  5. Wolfram Schumacher
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Correspondence to Wolfram Schumacher.

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Dedicated to Prof. Norbert Pfennig on the occasion of his 70th birthday

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Eisenmann, E., Beuerle, J., Sulger, K. et al. Lithotrophic growth ofSulfurospirillum deleyianum with sulfide as electron donor coupled to respiratory reduction of nitrate to ammonia. Arch. Microbiol. 164, 180–185 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02529969

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02529969

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