Fermentation of Purines and their Effect on the Adenylate Energy Charge and Viability of Starved Peptococcus pravotii

Reece, Phillip A.; Tóth, D.; Dawes, E. A.

doi:10.1099/00221287-97-1-63

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(6 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We suppose that oxygen consumption by phosphate-deficient cultures is inhibited because the lack of inorganic phosphate prevents conversion of ADP to ATP and, as a consequence, the coupled cytochrome reactions also become inhibited. Phosphate deficiency which impairs the phosphorylation of ADP should result in decreased cell viability (17,21,22,27). Our studies showed that phosphate-limited cells were less viable than phosphate-sufficient cells under identical conditions (Fig.…”

Section: Encystment Studies Cultures Of a Vinelandiimentioning

confidence: 64%

“…5). This was expected since cells with a low adenylate energy charge are considered to be less likely to survive even very gentle stress than those with a higher adenylate charge (17,21,27). Since these cells were suspended in saline solution (0.85% NaCl) in the absence of oxidizable substrate, death probably resulted from depletion of ATP and inability to generate sufficient energy (ATP) to maintain life (5,6).…”

Section: Encystment Studies Cultures Of a Vinelandiimentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Phosphate-limited culture of Azotobacter vinelandii

Tsai¹,

Aladegbami²,

Vela³

1979

J Bacteriol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Batch cultures of Azotobacter vinelandii grown in phosphate-deficient media were compared with control cultures grown in phosphate-sufficient media. Phosphate limitation was assessed by total cell yield and by growth kinetics. Although cell protein, nucleic acids, and early growth rate were unaffected by phosphate deficiency, cell wall structure, oxygen uptake, and cell viability were significantly affected. Also, phosphate-limited cells contained much larger amounts of poly-,8-hydroxybutyric acid but lower adenylate nucleotide energy charge than did control cells. The ratio of adenosine 5'-triphosphate to adenosine 5'-diphosphate was much lower in phosphate-deficient cells. The data indicate a substrate saving choice of three metabolic pathways available to this organism under different growth conditions. Although the Azotobacteriaceae have been extensively studied for almost 100 years (7,11,24,32) and although it has long been known that phosphorous (phosphate) is a vital element in all living cells, little is known of the effect of phosphate deprivation on the physiology of these bacteria. Although the role of phosphate in the structure and function of other microorganisms has been studied in great detail (9, 20, 23) only a few reports regarding specific effects of phosphate limitation on Azotobacter appear in the literature (3,4,13,19). Of these, the work which describes the loss of cell viability in phosphate-deficient cultures of Azotobacter chroococcum (3, 4, 13) raises provocative and important questions.Dalton and Postgate (3, 4) reported growth inhibition and decreased viability in phosphate. limited cultures and found a correlation between cellular oxygen consumption and nitrogenase function. This led them to the conclusion that phosphate-limited cultures stop growing in the presence of oxygen because ADP is converted to ATP and the resulting increased ratio of ATP to ADP "shuts off" respiration. They further postulated that this allows oxygen to accumulate in the cell, causing the inactivation of the nitrogenase system. Lees and Postgate (13) reiterated this explanation and offered supporting evidence' by showing that phosphate-sufficient cells remove dissolved oxygen from culture fluid, whereas phosphate-deficient cells fail to do so under the same conditions. From these reports, it appears that decreased viability of cells grown in phosphate-deficient media was due to oxidation of nitrogenase, which was a consequence of the phosphorylation of ADP. This is a report on measurements of the adenylate pools in cells of Azotobacter vinelandii grown in phosphate-deficient media. The experiments were conducted in batch cultures rather than chemostat cultures since the former show better the effect of phosphate limitation during different physiological states of the organism in question. Also, the conditions of the experiments, i.e., vigorous aeration with consequent maximal oxygenation of the culture medium, permitted us to distinguish the effects of phosphate deficiency from those of oxygen toxicity. A rec...

show abstract

Section: Encystment Studies Cultures Of a Vinelandiimentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Encystment Studies Cultures Of a Vinelandiimentioning

confidence: 99%

Phosphate-limited culture of Azotobacter vinelandii

Tsai¹,

Aladegbami²,

Vela³

1979

J Bacteriol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The oligotrophic and copiotrophic marine bacteria are examples of organisms with extreme longevity (1,25). On the contrary, the facultative and obligate anaerobic chemoheterotrophs studied thus far, i.e., Streptococcus lactis (36), S. faecalis, and other Streptococcus species (31), Staphylococcus epidermidis (11), Peptococcus prevotii (30), Ruminococcus flavefaciens (45), and Selenomonas ruminantium (22,23) are more sensitive to nutrient starvation and lose their viability within a few days.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioenergetic consequences of lactose starvation for continuously cultured Streptococcus cremoris

Poolman¹,

Smid²,

Veldkamp³

et al. 1987

J Bacteriol

112

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Streptococcus cremoris cells that had been grown in a chemostat were starved for lactose. The viability of the culture remained essentially constant in the first hours of starvation and subsequently declined logarithmically. The viability pattern during starvation varied with the previously imposed growth rates. The death rates were 0.029, 0.076, and 0.298 h-' for cells grown at dilution rates of 0.07, 0.11 and 0.38 h-', respectively. In their natural habitats, microorganisms are to various extents exposed to fluctuations in the availability of substrates. Some organisms are better adapted to conditions of nutrient starvation than others. The oligotrophic and copiotrophic marine bacteria are examples of organisms with extreme longevity (1, 25). On the contrary, the facultative and obligate anaerobic chemoheterotrophs studied thus far, i.e., Streptococcus lactis (36), S. faecalis, and other Streptococcus species (31), Staphylococcus epidermidis (11), Peptococcus prevotii (30), Ruminococcus flavefaciens (45), and Selenomonas ruminantium (22,23) are more sensitive to nutrient starvation and lose their viability within a few days.Factors that have been implicated in the survival of microorganisms during nutrient starvation are the possession of storage compounds (5), the presence of substrates for endogenous metabolism (4), the growth-limiting nutrient before starvation (22,23,29), the adenylate energy charge (12, 14), the energy of maintenance requirement (5), the maintenance of a proton motive force (16), and diminution of cell size (13, 25), and various other environmental and organism-specific parameters.The cytoplasmic membrane is the major barrier for separating the interior of the organism from its environment. To maintain this osmotic barrier function, which is vital for various cellular processes, the cell requires metabolic energy. Several sources of metabolic energy can be involved in the transport of solutes across the cytoplasmic membrane. The driving force for most solutes is the proton motive force or one of its components. Some solutes are translocated by ATP-dependent transport systems, whereas the uptake of some sugars can be mediated by phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP)-dependent group translocation systems (15). In this study, S. cremoris was used to investigate the effect of lactose starvation on several energetic and membraneassociated functions. S. cremoris is a strictly fermentative lactic acid bacterium which can ferment only a few carbohydrates. Substrate-level phosphorylation yields ATP, which is used partly to generate the transmembrane electrochemical proton gradient. S. cremoris is unable to consume endogenous substrates or to invoke any specialized mechanism to survive periods of nutrient starvation. Survival of energy starvation by S. lactis has been attributed to the maintenance of a large PEP pool (5, 43). These organisms do not possess metabolic energy in other storage compounds, which allows an exact determination of the transition from growth to energy starvation. This paper shows that c...

show abstract

“…Adenine is the only naturally occurring purine which is not attacked by these species (6,9). Under anaerobic conditions, the degradation of adenine has been reported for "Peptococcus aerogenes" (56), Peptococcus prevotii (36), and Clostridium sticklandii (37). Veillonella alcalescens deaminates adenine to some degree (57).…”

Section: Institut Fur Mikrobiologie Der Uniuersitat Gottingen Federmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isolation and Characterization of an Adenine-Utilizing, Anaerobic Sporeformer, Clostridium purinolyticum sp. nov.

Dürre¹,

Andersch²,

Andreesen³

1981

International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fermentation of Purines and their Effect on the Adenylate Energy Charge and Viability of Starved Peptococcus pravotii

Cited by 17 publications

References 4 publications

Phosphate-limited culture of Azotobacter vinelandii

Phosphate-limited culture of Azotobacter vinelandii

Bioenergetic consequences of lactose starvation for continuously cultured Streptococcus cremoris

Isolation and Characterization of an Adenine-Utilizing, Anaerobic Sporeformer, Clostridium purinolyticum sp. nov.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About