Induction of a thiosulfate-oxidizing enzyme in Rhodopseudomonas palustris

Abstract

reported that Rhodopseudomonas palustris grows photoautotrophically with thiosulfate as an oxidizable substrate. J. P. Rolls and E. S. Lindstrom (J. Bacteriol., in press) found that cell suspensions of R. palustris grown photosynthetically on organic substrates in thiosulfate-free media did not utilize thiosulfate immediately, as did cells grown either photoautotrophically or photoheterotrophically in thiosulfate-containing media. This thiosulfate-oxidizing system could be induced in cells grown in thiosulfate-free media if the cells were incubated for 8 hr under

Survey of the Photosynthetic Bacteria for Rhodanese (Thiosulfate: Cyanide Sulfur Transferase) Activity

“…The occurrence of rhodanese activity in photosynthetic bacteria is apparently not correlated either with the ability to metabolize thiosulfate or with the route of thiosulfate metabolism. Rhodanese may be involved in thiosulfate metabolism in Chromatium (6), may not be in R. palustris (3,7), and is certainly present in many nonthiosulfate-oxidizing A thiorhodaceae (Table 1). As growth in a cyanide-containing medium doubles rhodanese activity in R. palustris (S.…”