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Effects of tungstate on the growth of Desulfovibrio gigas NCIMB 9332 and other sulfate-reducing bacteria with ethanol as a substrate

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Abstract

Growth of Desulfovibrio gigas NCIMB 9332 in mineral, vitamin-supplemented media with ethanol as substrate was strongly stimulated by the addition of tungstate (optimal level approximately 10-7 M). At suboptimal tungstate concentrations, up to 1.0 mM acetaldehyde was detected in the culture supernatant and growth was slow. Omission of both tungstate and molybdate from the media prevented growth and ethanol utilization. Tungstate-deprived cultures that were grown on lactate had much lower aldehyde dehydrogenase (benzylviologen as acceptor; BV-AIDH) levels than tungstate-supplemented cultures. These data suggest that tungstate is required for the synthesis of active BV-AIDH. The characteristics of the enzyme activities in cell-free extracts show that the BV-AIDH activity present in tungstate-supplemented cultures is not due to the recently characterized molybdenum-containing aldehyde dehydrogenase of D. gigas. Out of 13 other strains of ethanol-oxidizing, gram-negative, sulfate-reducing bacteria tested, most strains grew well with either tungstate or molybdate supplementation. In contrast to a recent report, good growth on ethanol of two D. baculatus (Desulfomicrobium) strains (DSM 1741 and DSM 1743) was observed.

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Abbreviations

BV-AIDH :

Benzylviologen-linked aldehyde dehydrogenase

DCPIP-AIDH :

2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol-linked aldehyde dehydrogenase

DTT :

dithiothreitol

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Hensgens, C.M.H., Nienhuis-Kuiper, M.E. & Hansen, T.A. Effects of tungstate on the growth of Desulfovibrio gigas NCIMB 9332 and other sulfate-reducing bacteria with ethanol as a substrate. Arch. Microbiol. 162, 143–147 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00264388

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