BACTERIAL CELL METABOLISM UNDER ANAEROBIC CONDITIONS

Author:

Walker H. H.1,Winslow C.-E. A.1,Mooney M. Grace1

Affiliation:

1. From the Department of Public Health, The School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven

Abstract

Escherichia coli has been cultivated in a peptone water medium saturated continuously with nitrogen by use of a gas train so as to produce anaerobic conditions. Under these circumstances growth was greatly inhibited. Cultures which originally contained 11 million bacteria per cc. showed on the average only 32 million after 5 hours (as compared with 655 million in similar cultures saturated with air). The metabolic activity of the cells in such a culture was greatly reduced by the anaerobic conditions. It actually fell off from 42 mg. x 10–11 per cell per hour during the 1st hour to 27 mg. during the 2nd hour and rose only to a maximum of 68 during the 3rd hour. Similar cultures saturated with air showed a rise from 37 mg. x 10–11 during the 1st hour to 123 during the 2nd hour. The addition of glucose to the medium, under aerobic conditions, has been shown in previous studies to cause only a slight increase in bacterial numbers (861 instead of 655 million after the 5th hour). In the cultures aerated with nitrogen, the addition of glucose has no effect during the first hours. There is again a long lag period and a reduced metabolic rate. After the 2nd hour, however, a wholly different phenomenon manifests itself. The bacterial population increases more rapidly than in the anaerobic peptone medium (reaching a maximum of 142 million after 5 hours). This growth is accompanied by an enormous increase in the rate of CO2 yield, which reaches 211 mg. x 10–11 per cell per hour during the 4th hour (nearly double the maximum values recorded under aerobic conditions). The same phenomenon is, of course, illustrated by the enormous yield of CO2 produced by the action of fermenting organisms in carbohydrate media recorded by Anderson (1924) and other students of the obligate anaerobes. We have here, however, a somewhat striking illustration of the distinct type of metabolic activity manifested by a facultative organism under anaerobic conditions in the presence of sugar measured on a cell-per-hour basis. This is a quantitative illustration of the "life without air" described by Pasteur.

Publisher

Rockefeller University Press

Subject

Physiology

Cited by 8 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. How microbiological tests reflect bacterial pathogenesis and host adaptation;Brazilian Journal of Microbiology;2021-07-12

2. The Highly Conserved MraZ Protein Is a Transcriptional Regulator in Escherichia coli;Journal of Bacteriology;2014-03-21

3. Atmung und Entwicklung;Plant Respiration Inclusive Fermentations and Acid Metabolism / Pflanzenatmung Einschliesslich Gärungen und Säurestoffwechsel;1960

4. THE EARLIER PHASES OF THE BACTERIAL CULTURE CYCLE;Bacteriological Reviews;1939-12

5. An Open System Respirometer for Study of the Gaseous Metabolism of Microorganisms;Journal of Bacteriology;1937-03

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3