scholarly journals Aerobic Growth of Escherichia coli with 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene (TNT) as the Sole Nitrogen Source and Evidence of TNT Denitration by Whole Cells and Cell-Free Extracts

2006 ◽  
Vol 72 (12) ◽  
pp. 7945-7948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Stenuit ◽  
Laurent Eyers ◽  
Raoul Rozenberg ◽  
Jean-Louis Habib-Jiwan ◽  
Spiros N. Agathos

ABSTRACT Escherichia coli grew aerobically with 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) as sole nitrogen source and caused TNT's partial denitration. This reaction was enhanced in nongrowing cell suspensions with 0.516 mol nitrite released per mol TNT. Cell extracts denitrated TNT in the presence of NAD(P)H. Isomers of amino-dimethyl-tetranitrobiphenyl were detected and confirmed with U-15N-labeled TNT.

1992 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 290-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur S. Brecher ◽  
Timothy A. Moehlman ◽  
William D. Hann

α-Chymotrypsin serves as a sole carbon source, sole nitrogen source, and as sole carbon plus nitrogen source for wild-type Escherichia coli in a totally defined medium. Hence, a mammalian host for E. coli may supply the necessary carbon and nitrogen nutrients for the microorganism. Growth is most rapid when chymotrypsin is a sole nitrogen source,and least rapid with chymotrypsin as a carbon source. The approximate doubling times for E. coli utilizing chymotrypsin as a nitrogen source, carbon plus nitrogen source, and carbon source are 1.6, 4.6, and 11.3 h, respectively. The activity of the residual enzyme in the culture supernates falls off asymptotically over the course of time, as followed by cleavage of glutaryl-L-phenylalanine-p-nitroanilide. Chymotrypsin hydrolyzes succinyl-L-ala-L-ala-L-ala-p-nitroanilide, the elastase substrate, to some extent. Peptidases do not appear to be secreted that hydrolyze such model substrates as benzoyl-DL-arginine-p-nitroanilide, the tryptic and cathepsin B substrate, L-leucine-p-nitroanilide, the leucine aminopeptidase substrate, or L-lysine-p-nitroanilide, the aminopeptidase B substrate. Growth of E. coli is generally directly related to the loss of chymotryptic activity in the medium. Hence, autolysis of chymotrypsin, i.e., self-degradation, is an important factor for the availability of degradation products of the enzyme to the bacterium for growth purposes. Accordingly, the degradation of a host protein by autolysis presents an opportunity for E. coli to survive during periods of host nutritional crisis by utilization of the degradation peptides that are produced during autolysis. Key words: chymotrypsin, Escherichia coli, growth, nutrition, peptide source.


2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (7) ◽  
pp. 2226-2233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takuma Uo ◽  
Tohru Yoshimura ◽  
Naotaka Tanaka ◽  
Kaoru Takegawa ◽  
Nobuyoshi Esaki

ABSTRACT Schizosaccharomyces pombe has an open reading frame, which we named alr1 +, encoding a putative protein similar to bacterial alanine racemase. We cloned thealr1 + gene in Escherichia coli and purified the gene product (Alr1p), with an M rof 41,590, to homogeneity. Alr1p contains pyridoxal 5′-phosphate as a coenzyme and catalyzes the racemization of alanine with apparentKm and V max values as follows: for l-alanine, 5.0 mM and 670 μmol/min/mg, respectively, and for d-alanine, 2.4 mM and 350 μmol/min/mg, respectively. The enzyme is almost specific to alanine, but l-serine and l-2-aminobutyrate are racemized slowly at rates 3.7 and 0.37% of that ofl-alanine, respectively. S. pombe usesd-alanine as a sole nitrogen source, but deletion of thealr1 + gene resulted in retarded growth on the same medium. This indicates that S. pombe has catabolic pathways for both enantiomers of alanine and that the pathway forl-alanine coupled with racemization plays a major role in the catabolism of d-alanine. Saccharomyces cerevisiae differs markedly from S. pombe: S. cerevisiae uses l-alanine but notd-alanine as a sole nitrogen source. Moreover,d-alanine is toxic to S. cerevisiae. However, heterologous expression of the alr1 + gene enabled S. cerevisiae to grow efficiently ond-alanine as a sole nitrogen source. The recombinant yeast was relieved from the toxicity of d-alanine.


1971 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Hamilton ◽  
G. B. Cox

Cell extracts of a multiple aromatic auxotroph of Escherichia coli K-12, strain AB2830, grown in the absence of precursors of the quinone rings of the ubiquinone and menaquinone molecules, converted 4-hydroxy[U-14C]benzoate into a mixture of 3-octaprenyl-4-hydroxybenzoate and 2-octaprenylphenol. An octaprenol, farnesylfarnesylgeraniol, was isolated from such cell extracts and characterized by n.m.r. and mass spectroscopy. Neither the octaprenol, nor polyprenylation of 4-hydroxy[U-14C]benzoate, could be detected in cell extracts of strain AB2830 grown in the presence of 0.1mm-4-hydroxybenzoate. It was concluded that, in the biosynthesis of ubiquinone, the polyprenyl side chain is added to 4-hydroxybenzoate as a C40 unit, the active form of which is converted by cell extracts into farnesylfarnesylgeraniol. The multiple aromatic auxotroph, when grown in the absence of 4-hydroxybenzoate but in the presence of 4-aminobenzoate, converted the latter compound into 3-octaprenyl-4-aminobenzoate. This compound was isolated from whole cells and characterized by n.m.r. and mass spectroscopy.


1957 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. R. Campbell ◽  
A. M. MacQuillan ◽  
B. A. Eagles ◽  
R. A. Smith

When tested against Pseudomonas fluorescens, pyocyanine was found to stop the oxidation of a number of substrates at the keto acid level. This inhibition could be reversed by the addition of divalent cations. Of these, magnesium was most effective. The pigment was found to be similarly effective against the oxidations of Proteus vulgaris. Whole cells of Escherichia coli were not affected by the dye, whereas cell extracts were, indicating that the dye did not penetrate the cell membrane.


1976 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 922-928 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. B. Newman ◽  
T. Adley ◽  
J. Fraser ◽  
R. Potter ◽  
V. Kapoor

The amino acid L-leucine serves as a good auxiliary nitrogen source for Escherichia coli K12, and in so doing is converted to alpha-ketoisocaproic acid which is excreted into the medium.L-Leucine does not serve as sole nitrogen source. Cells incubated with L-leucine as sole nitrogen source do not grow, although they do metabolize leucine, and accumulate ketoisocaproic acid in the medium.Where glycine is the only other nitrogen source, the presence of L-leucine greatly increases the growth rate even at concentrations so low that its contribution as nitrogen donor is unlikely to be important.


1998 ◽  
Vol 64 (8) ◽  
pp. 2864-2868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher E. French ◽  
Stephen Nicklin ◽  
Neil C. Bruce

ABSTRACT Enterobacter cloacae PB2 was originally isolated on the basis of its ability to utilize nitrate esters, such as pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) and glycerol trinitrate, as the sole nitrogen source for growth. The enzyme responsible is an NADPH-dependent reductase designated PETN reductase. E. cloacae PB2 was found to be capable of slow aerobic growth with 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) as the sole nitrogen source. Dinitrotoluenes were not produced and could not be used as nitrogen sources. Purified PETN reductase was found to reduce TNT to its hydride-Meisenheimer complex, which was further reduced to the dihydride-Meisenheimer complex. Purified PETN reductase and recombinant Escherichia coli expressing PETN reductase were able to liberate nitrogen as nitrite from TNT. The ability to remove nitrogen from TNT suggests that PB2 or recombinant organisms expressing PETN reductase may be useful for bioremediation of TNT-contaminated soil and water.


2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (15) ◽  
pp. 5238-5246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongfei Han ◽  
Ji-Young Ryu ◽  
Robert A. Kanaly ◽  
Hor-Gil Hur

ABSTRACTA plasmid, pTA163, inEscherichia colicontained an approximately 34-kb gene fragment fromPseudomonas putidaJYR-1 that included the genes responsible for the metabolism oftrans-anethole to protocatechuic acid. Three Tn5-disrupted open reading frame 10 (ORF 10) mutants of plasmid pTA163 lost their abilities to catalyzetrans-anethole. Heterologously expressed ORF 10 (1,047 nucleotides [nt]) under a T7 promoter inE. colicatalyzed oxidative cleavage of a propenyl group oftrans-anethole to an aldehyde group, resulting in the production ofpara-anisaldehyde, and this gene was designatedtao(trans-anetholeoxygenase). The deduced amino acid sequence of TAO had the highest identity (34%) to a hypothetical protein ofAgrobacterium vitisS4 and likely contained a flavin-binding site. Preferred incorporation of an oxygen molecule from water intop-anisaldehyde using18O-labeling experiments indicated stereo preference of TAO for hydrolysis of the epoxide group. Interestingly, unlike the narrow substrate range of isoeugenol monooxygenase fromPseudomonas putidaIE27 andPseudomonas nitroreducensJin1, TAO fromP. putidaJYR-1 catalyzed isoeugenol,O-methyl isoeugenol, and isosafrole, all of which contain the 2-propenyl functional group on the aromatic ring structure. Addition of NAD(P)H to the ultrafiltered cell extracts ofE. coli(pTA163) increased the activity of TAO. Due to the relaxed substrate range of TAO, it may be utilized for the production of various fragrance compounds from plant phenylpropanoids in the future.


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