Nitrogen sources, bacteria

Assimilatory denitrifiers reduce nitrate to the amino acid level where it is incorporated into protein. Many plants and bacteria can do this and, therefore, use nitrate as a nitrogen source. 

C14-0026. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria react N2 with H2 O to produce NH3 and O2 using ATP as their energy source. About 24 molecules of ATP are consumed per molecule of N2 fixed. What percentage of the free energy derived from ATP is stored in NH3 ... 

Bruhn C, H Lenks, H-J Knackmuss (1987) Nitrosubstituted aromatic compounds as nitrogen source for bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 53 208-210. 

Growth experiments were conducted using bacteria from oil installations with several chemicals normally used in injection water treatment. The studies revealed that some chemicals could be utilized as nitrogen sources, as phosphorus sources, and as carbon sources for the bacteria [1696]. Therefore it is concluded that the growth potential of water treatment additives may be... 

Biochemical tests are usually performed after pure cultures have been obtained. The standard indole, methyl red, Voges-Proskauer, citrate, and litmus milk tests may be used to show important physiological characteristics. To study the functional diversity of bacteria, the utilization of carbohydrates, amines, amides, carboxylic acids, amino acids, polymers, and other carbon and nitrogen sources can be tested.28 Dilution-based most-probable number (MPN) techniques with phospholipid fatty acids as biomarkers have been employed for studying different bacterial species in lakes.40 The patterns of antibiotic resistance in bacteria isolated from natural waters have been useful for identifying sources of water pollution.34... 

A strain of Pseudomonas sp. uses 2,6-dinitrophenol as a nitrogen source for growth by first cleaving the nitro groups to free nitrite which, presumably after reduction to NH3, sustains replication of the bacteria. 

The ease of the Strecker synthesis from aldehydes makes a-aminonitriles an attractive and important route to a-amino acids. Fortunately, the microbial world offers a number of enzymes for carrying out the necessary conversions, some of them highly stereoselective. Nitrilases catalyze a direct conversion of nitrile into carboxylic acid (Equation (11)), whereas nitrile hydratases catalyze formation of the amide, which can then be hydrolyzed to the carboxylic acid in a second step (Equation (12)). In a recent survey, with a view to bioremediation and synthesis, Brady et al have surveyed the ability of a wide range of bacteria and yeasts to grow on diverse nitriles and amides as sole nitrogen source. This provides a rich source of information on enzymes for future application. 

Production of HA from nitrate as the sole nitrogen source by unknown soil bacteria was demonstrated as early as 1928 and 1931, and was confirmed in 1932 by the use of known pure bacterial cultures. Later, HA was suggested to be an intermediate in the in vitro reduction of nitrate by sheep rumen bacteria . 

Blom was the first to demonstrate, in 1928, the formation of HA by an unknown mixture of bacteria which utilized nitrate as their sole nitrogen source to produce ammonia , an observation substantiated by Lindsey and Rhines who generalized this reaction to a diverse set of microorganisms capable of producing NH3 by reduction of both nitrites and nitrates. The mechanism of the 6-electron reduction of nitrite to ammonia (i.e. conversion of the [N + 02] species to by bacterial cytochrome c nitrite reductase... 

Figure 2. Influence of yeast extract on the production of APPL by cultures of S. badius and S. viridosporus. The bacteria were grown in minimal culture media with Indulin (0.5%) as source of carbon and either yeast extract (0.6%) or NH4CI (0.02%) as nitrogen source. Q = APPL produced by S. badius grown in the presence of either NH4CI or yeast extract. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. 11, 1989 ASM.) o = APPL produced by S. viridosporus grown in the presence of either NH4CI or yeast extract.

Law, B. A. 1980. Transport and utilization of proteins by bacteria. In Micro-organisms and Nitrogen Sources. J. W. Payne (Editor). John Wiley and Sons, New York, pp. 381-409. 

Cook, A.M and R. Hutter (1981). s-Triazines as nitrogen sources for bacteria. J. Agric. Food-Chem., 29 1135-1143. 

---