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J Bacteriol. 1973 March; 113(3): 1373-1380
Copyright © 1973 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Regulation of Manganese Accumulation and Exchange in Bacillus subtilis W23

^a Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130

ABSTRACT

An overnight culture of Bacillus subtilis W23 in low-manganese tryptone broth is unable to sporulate and becomes hyperactive with regard to the manganese active transport system during stationary phase. When manganese is added to cells in spent or fresh medium, the cells immediately accumulate a high proportion of the manganese available in the medium. When the hyperactive cells are diluted into broth containing 10 µM Mn²⁺, high intracellular manganese levels are reached, and inhibition of ribonucleic acid and protein synthesis occurs. This inhibition is relieved when the intracellular manganese concentration declines to the nontoxic levels characteristic of cells growing in 10 µM Mn²⁺. The release of the accumulated manganese is achieved by a reduction in the uptake rate for manganese while the efflux rate remains essentially constant. Inhibitors of ribonucleic acid and protein synthesis prevent the reduction of the high rate of manganese uptake and, therefore, high net concentrations of manganese are maintained in the presence of these inhibitors. The hyperactive manganese uptake system is temperature dependent and inhibited by cyanide and m-chlorophenyl carbonylcyanide hydrazone.

¹ Present address: Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Mass. 02111.

² Present address: Institut fur Genetik, Universität zu Köln, 5 Köln 41, Germany.