scholarly journals Bacterial Life and Dinitrogen Fixation at a Gypsum Rock

2004 ◽  
Vol 70 (12) ◽  
pp. 7070-7077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gudrun Boison ◽  
Alexander Mergel ◽  
Helena Jolkver ◽  
Hermann Bothe
Keyword(s):  
Nitrogenase Activity ◽  
Dinitrogen Fixation ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Low Light ◽  
Light Intensities ◽  
Bluish Green ◽  
Reductase Gene ◽  
Gypsum Rock ◽  
Microaerobic Conditions ◽  
Reduced Light

ABSTRACT The organisms of a bluish-green layer beneath the shards of a gypsum rock were characterized by molecular techniques. The cyanobacterial consortium consisted almost exclusively of Chroococcidiopsis spp. The organisms of the shards expressed nitrogenase activity (C2H2 reduction) aerobically and in light. After a prolonged period of drought at the rock, the cells were inactive, but they resumed nitrogenase activity 2 to 3 days after the addition of water. In a suspension culture of Chroococcidiopsis sp. strain PCC7203, C2H2 reduction required microaerobic conditions and was strictly dependent on low light intensities. Sequencing of a segment of the nitrogenase reductase gene (nifH) indicated that Chroococcidiopsis possesses the alternative molybdenum nitrogenase 2, expressed in Anabaena variabilis only under reduced O2 tensions, rather than the widespread, common molybdenum nitrogenase. The shards apparently provide microsites with reduced light intensities and reduced O2 tension that allow N2 fixation to proceed in the unicellular Chroococcidiopsis at the gypsum rock, unless the activity is due to minute amounts of other, very active cyanobacteria. Phylogenetic analysis of nifH sequences tends to suggest that molybdenum nitrogenase 2 is characteristic of those unicellular or filamentous, nonheterocystous cyanobacteria fixing N2 under microaerobic conditions only.

A laboratory study of vertical migration

1955 ◽  
Vol 144 (916) ◽  
pp. 329-354 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Light Intensity ◽  
Vertical Migration ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Low Light ◽  
Overhead Light ◽  
Light Intensities ◽  
Orientation Response ◽  
Reduced Light ◽  
Characteristic Maximum

In a tank filled with a suspension of indian ink in tap water, a population of Daphnia magna will undergo a complete cycle of vertical migration when an overhead light source is cycli­cally varied in intensity. A ‘dawn rise’ to the surface at low intensity is followed by the descent of the animals to a characteristic maximum depth. The animals rise to the surface again as the light decreases, and finally show a typical midnight sinking. The light intensities at the level of the animals in this experiment are of the same order as those which have been reported in field observations; the time course of the movement also repeats the natural conditions in the field. The process is independent of the duration of the cycle and is related only to the variation in overhead light intensity. At low light intensity the movement of the animal is determined solely by positive photo-kinesis; the dawn rise is a manifestation of this, and is independent of the direction of the light. At high light intensities there is an orientation response which is superimposed upon an alternating positive (photokinetic) phase and a negative phase during which movement is inhibited. The fully oriented animal shows a special type of positive and negative phototaxis, moving towards the light at reduced light intensities and away from it when the light intensity is increased. In this condition it follows a zone of optimum light intensity with some exactness. Experiments show that an animal in this fully oriented condition will respond to the slow changes of intensity characteristic of the diurnal cycle, while being little affected by tran­sient changes of considerable magnitude.

COMBINATION AND DISPROPORTIONATION OF ETHYL RADICALS: INFLUENCE OF THE REACTION H+C2H5 = C2H6

1955 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 821-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moyra J. Smith ◽  
Patricia M. Beatty ◽  
J. A. Pinder ◽  
D. J. Le Roy
Keyword(s):  
Light Intensity ◽  
Excellent Agreement ◽  
Mercury Concentration ◽  
Rate Constants ◽  
Room Temperature ◽  
Low Light ◽  
Ethylene Concentration ◽  
Light Intensities ◽  
Ethyl Radicals ◽  
Hydrogenation Of Ethylene

The mercury (3P1) photosensitized hydrogenation of ethylene has been studied at room temperature as a function of ethylene concentration, mercury concentration, and light intensity. In addition to combination and disproportionation, ethyl radicals have been shown to take part in the reaction[Formula: see text]The conditions favoring this reaction have been established and anomalous values previously found for the ratio of ethane to butane have been explained. The value obtained for the ratio of the rate constants for the disproportionation and combination of ethyl radicals, 0.15 ±.01, is in excellent agreement with the values obtained by other methods. Hexane formation is of some importance at low light intensities and high ethylene concentrations, and is adequately accounted for by the reactions[Formula: see text]

Microaerobic denitrification in Neisseria meningitidis

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.D. Rock ◽  
J.W.B. Moir
Keyword(s):  
Neisseria Meningitidis ◽  
Respiratory Chain ◽  
Growth Conditions ◽  
Nitric Oxide Reductase ◽  
Genome Sequences ◽  
Course Of Disease ◽  
Nitrite Reductase Gene ◽  
Reductase Gene ◽  
Microaerobic Conditions ◽  
Limited Oxygen

The major aetiological agent of human bacterial meningitis is Neisseria meningitidis. During the course of disease and host colonization, the bacterium has to withstand limited oxygen availability. Nitrogen oxide and nitrogen oxyanions are thought to be present, which may constitute an alternative sink for electrons from the N. meningitidis respiratory chain. A partial denitrification pathway is encoded by the aniA nitrite reductase gene and the norB nitric oxide reductase gene. Analysis of the completed genome sequences of two N. meningitidis strains is used to generate a model for the membrane-associated respiratory chain of this organism. Analysis of aniA expression indicates it to be controlled primarily by oxygen and secondarily by nitrite. The ability of N. meningitidis to denitrify relies on microaerobic growth conditions. Here we show that under microaerobic conditions nitrite supplements oxygen as an alternative respiratory substrate.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document