Abstract
Cultures of Acetobacterium woodii and Clostridium thermoaceticum growing on fructose or glucose, respectively, were found to produce small, but significant amounts of carbon monoxide. In the gas phase of the cultures up to 53 ppm CO were determined. The carbon monoxide production was completely inhibited by 1 mM cyanide. Cultures and cell suspensions of both acetogens incorporated 14CO specifically into the carboxyl group of acetate. This CO fixation into C1 of acetate was unaffected by cyanide (1 mM). The findings are taken to indicate that CO (in a bound form) is the physiological precursor of the C1 of acetate in acetate synthesis from CO2. The cyanide inhibition experiments support the hypothesis that the cyanide-sensitive carbon monoxide dehydrogenase may serve to reduce CO2 to CO rather than to incorporate the carbonyl into C1 of acetate.
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Diekert, G., Hansch, M. & Conrad, R. Acetate synthesis from 2 CO2 in acetogenic bacteria: is carbon monoxide an intermediate?. Arch. Microbiol. 138, 224–228 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00402125
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00402125