Assimilation of Nitrogen from Nitrite and Trinitrotoluene in Pseudomonas putida JLR11

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas putida JLR11 releases nitrogen from the 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) ring as nitrite or ammonium. These processes can occur simultaneously, as shown by the observation that a nasB mutant impaired in the reduction of nitrite to ammonium grew at a slower rate than the parental strain. Nitrogen from TNT is assimilated via the glutamine syntethase-glutamate synthase (GS-GOGAT) pathway, as evidenced by the inability of GOGAT mutants to use TNT. This pathway is also used to assimilate ammonium from reduced nitrate and nitrite. Three mutants that had insertions in ntrC , nasT , and cnmA , which encode regulatory proteins, failed to grow on nitrite but grew on TNT, although slower than the wild type.