The effects of hypersaline treatment (osmotic upshock) on solute accumulation have been studied in the Grampositive bacterium BaciZZus subtiZis. Natural abundance 3C NMR spectroscopy studies revealed only proline as a major organic osmoticum in cells grown in defined medium (no exogenous organic solutes) and this finding was confirmed by amino acid analysis. Intracellular concentrations of both K+ and proline rose markedly after osmotic upshock. K+ influx from the medium was rapid (< 1 h) but proline synthesis was a slower process (5-9 h). Proline synthesis appeared to be dependent on the prior accumulation of K+ and it is possible that K+ serves in some manner as the signal for increased proline synthesis. In cells upshocked in medium enriched in glycine betaine the endogenous synthesis of proline was repressed and glycine betaine served as the sole organic osmoticum. K+ was also accumulated under these conditions.

The effects of hypersaline treatment (osmotic upshock) on cell water relations were examined in the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis using particle size analysis. Application of the Boyle-van't Hoff relationship (cell volume versus reciprocal of external osmolality) permitted direct determination of turgor pressure, which was approximately 0.75 osmol kg-' (1.9MPa) in exponentially growing bacteria in a defined medium. The abolition of turgor pressure immediately after upshock and the subsequent recovery of turgor were investigated. Recovery of turgor was K+ dependent. Calculation of turgor by an alternative method involving spectrophotometric analysis of shrinkage gave somewhat lower estimates of turgor pressure.

~~~~~In a comprehensive survey of the carbohydrate accumulation profiles of more than 70 strains of cyanobacteria three organic osmotica (glucosylglycerol, sucrose and trehalose) have been identified in both freshwater and marine isolates under conditions of osmotic stress. While the trend was towards glucosylglycerol accumulation in marine strains and sucrose accumulation in freshwater forms, there were no absolute differences between cyanobacteria isolated from each habitat. There was also no clear link between genus and the type of carbohydrate accumulated.

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Suspensions of the faecal indicator bacteria Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis were incubated in full sunlight in plastic bottles containing either (i) airequilibrated (oxygenated) water or (ii) anaerobic (deoxygenated) water. A rapid decrease in cfu ml −1 was observed for actively growing and stationary phase cells of both types of faecal bacteria when illuminated under aerobic conditions, with Ent. faecalis showing the greater enhancement in the rate of inactivation in air-equilibrated water. The demonstration of an oxygen requirement for the inactivation of faecal bacteria in sunlight indicates that solar-based water disinfection systems are likely to require fully aerobic conditions in order to function effectively.

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1985) The osmotic role of mannitol in the Phaeophyta: an appraisal. Phycologia 24: 35-47.Natural abundance l3C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) has shown mannitol to be the only major low molecular weight organic compound present in osmotically significant amounts within cells of the fo llowing marine brown algae: Alaria esculenta, Ascophyllum nodosum, Ectocarpus siliculosus, Fucus serratus, F. spiralis, F. vesiculosus, Halidrys siliquosa, Laminaria digitata, L. hyperborea, L. saccharina and Pilayella littoralis. Samples of the top-shore alga Pelvetia canaliculata were fo und to contain volemitol in addition to mannitol. Quantitative gas-liquid chromatographic analyses have confi rmed the presence of mannitol, at concentrations ranging fr om 83.3 to 314.0 mmol kg-1 (expressed in terms of intracellular water content) fo r plants maintained in a fu ll-strength (100%) sea water medium. A study of the changes in intracellular mannitol concentration of six marine brown macroalgae immersed in hyposaline and hypersaline media (20-1 50% EA I sea water medium) showed that mannitol concentration varied as a direct fu nction of salinity in all cases, providing support for the hypothesis that mannitol is intimately involved in osmotic adjustment in response to changes in external water status. Plants of the filamentous form P. littoralis maintained in darkness also showed a marked sensitivity of intracellular mannitol concentration to alterations in the external salt concentration. Overall, the data support an osmotic, rather than a respiratory role fo r the large internal pools of mannitol in such algal cells.