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Acid stress and lake bacteria: Ultrastructural and physiological correlates of some acid and copper stresses

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Abstract

A description is given of concurrent changes in bacterial ultrastructure and physiology in relation to applied stresses of acid and/or copper: the environmentally-relevant correlations are explored as a potential tool for ascertaining mechanisms of acid rain damage. Ultrastructural analysis permits a differentiation, on a gross scale, between different levels of acid and combined acid/copper stresses in laboratory experiments on enrichment cultures of lacustrine microbial populations rich in Gram-negative bacteria. For the dominant morphotypes of Gram-negative bacteria, changes in the cell envelope (and its extensions) correlate also with changes in activity of envelope-associated enzymes.

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Leppard, G.G., Rao, S.S. Acid stress and lake bacteria: Ultrastructural and physiological correlates of some acid and copper stresses. Hydrobiologia 160, 241–247 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00007138

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