Nitrate anaerobic electron acceptor

A facultative autotroph (lithotroph) strain MLHE-1 was able to oxidize arsenite under anaerobic conditions to arsenate using nitrate as electron acceptor (Oremland et al. 2002). 

Groundwater and Soil. Pumping out the liquid phase is an obvious first step if die contaminant is likely to be mobile, but in situ bioremediation is a promising option. Thus, the U.S. Department of Energy is investigating the use of anaerobic in situ degradation of carbon tetrachloride with nitrate as electron acceptor, and acetate as electron donor. 

The anaerobic oxidation of ammonia can be an important process in the absence of oxygen, if nitrite as an alternative electronacceptor is available. Nitrite does usually not accumulate in high concentrations but may be continuously delivered by bacteria using nitrate as electron acceptor for the oxidation of organic carbon. Thus, anammox... 

Dissimilatory reduction of nitrate to ammonia is performed by obligate and facultative anaerobes with fermentative metabolism, including Clostridium and Bacillus species (Tiedje, 1988). These organisms, in contrast to denitrifiers, usually do not rely on nitrate as electron acceptor. Therefore, DNRA involves 8e transfer as compared to 5e transfer for denitrification, suggesting that more organic substrate can be potentially degraded by DNRA. However, nitrate availability under DNRA conditions is usually very low because much of the nitrate formed during nitrification under aerobic conditions is rapidly consumed by denitrifiers in adjacent anaerobic environments. 

Certain species of Enterobacteriaceae, especially 0. proteus, could utilise nitrates as electron acceptors for anaerobic respiration, resulting in reduction of nitrate into nitrite. Nitrite further could possibly react with secondary amines present in the wort, forming (V-nitrosoamine (Figure 8.2). A -nitrosomines are carcinogenic in nature (Smith, 1994). Hence, a considerable amount of apparent total N-nitroso compounds (ATNCs) represents a possible risk to health, and consequently their concentration is strictly monitored and limited to 20 gg/1 (Maiguerite and Walker, 2002). Because of the risk of W-nitroso compounds, the Enterobacteriaceae species related to brewery environments are monitored. 

The conditions under which these function and their regulation depend on the organism. For example, in Escherichia coli, oxygen represses the synthesis of the other reductases, and under anaerobic conditions the reductases for fumarate, DMSO, and TMAO are repressed by nitrate. This does not apply to Wolinella succinogenes in which sulfur represses the synthesis of the more positive electron acceptors nitrate and fumarate (Lorenzen et al. 1993). The DMSO reductase from Escherichia coli (Weiner et al. 1988) has a broad substrate versatility, and is able to reduce a range of sulfoxides and A-oxides. Anaerobic sulfate reduction is not discussed here in detail. 

The selenate reductase from Enterobacter cloacae SLDla-1 functions only under aerobic conditions, and is not able to serve as an electron acceptor for anaerobic growth, in contrast to the periplasmic enzyme from Thauera selenatis (Schroder et al. 1997). In E. cloacae there are separate nitrate and selenate reductases, both of which are membrane-bound. The selenate reductase is able to reduce chlorate and bromate though not nitrate, contains Mo, heme and nonheme iron, and consists of three subunits in an a3p3y3 configuration. 

The chlorate reductase has been characterized in strain GR-1 where it was found in the periplasm, is oxygen-sensitive, and contains molybdenum, and both [3Fe-4S] and [4Fe-4S] clusters (Kengen et al. 1999). The arsenate reductase from Chrysiogenes arsenatis contains Mo, Fe, and acid-labile S (Krafft and Macy 1998), and the reductase from Thauera selenatis that is specific for selenate, is located in the periplasmic space, and contains Mo, Fe, acid-labile S, and cytochrome b (Schroeder et al. 1997). In contrast, the membrane-bound selenate reductase from Enterobacter cloacae SLDla-1 that cannot function as an electron acceptor under anaerobic conditions contains Mo and Fe and is distinct from nitrate reductase (Ridley et al. 2006). 

A detailed investigation by Groenewegen et al. (1990) has examined the uptake of 4-chlorobenzoate by a coryneform bacterium that degraded this compound. The uptake was inducible and occurred in cells grown with 4-chlorobenzoate but not with glucose. A proton motive force (Ap)-driven mechanism was almost certainly involved, and uptake could not take place under anaerobic conditions unless an electron acceptor such as nitrate was present. 

Bacteria Using Nitrate Electron Acceptor under Anaerobic Conditions, and Anaerobic Phototrophs... 

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