Affiliation:
1. Department of Bacteriology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024
Abstract
Measurements of oxidation rates, respiratory quotients (RQ), and release of
14
CO
2
from uniformly labeled substrates showed that glutamate, α-ketoglutarate, and synthetic and natural amino acid mixtures are oxidized by suspensions of
Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus
strain 109J. The oxidation of these substrates largely suppress the endogenous respiration of the
Bdellovibrio
cells and may or may not cause a small increase, 20 to 50%, in their rate of oxygen consumption. The failure of respired substrates to increase markedly the respiration rate of the
Bdellovibrio
cells over the endogenous value is discussed. Carbon from these substrates is incorporated into the
Bdellovibrio
cells during oxidation. Acetate is also oxidized, but its oxidation inhibits endogenous respiration by only about 40% and no acetate is assimilated. The RQ of the
Bdellovibrio
cells changes from a value characteristic of endogenous respiration to that characteristic of the oxidation of glutamate or of a balanced amino mixture very shortly after the attack of the
Bdellovibrio
cells on their prey, and the latter RQ is maintained during intraperiplasmic growth. Glutamate, or a mixture of amino acids in the external environment, contributes to the carbon dioxide produced by the
Bdellovibrio
cells growing intraperiplasmically. It is concluded from these data that amino acids, derived from the breakdown of the protein of the prey, serve as a major energy source during intraperiplasmic growth of
B. bacteriovorus
108J. Insofar as they were tested,
B. bacteriovorus
strains 109D and A. 3. 12 were similar in respiration to strain 109J.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,Microbiology
Cited by
61 articles.
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