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J Bacteriol. 1968 November; 96(5): 1455-1464
Copyright © 1968 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Regulation of Nitrate Assimilation and Nitrate Respiration in Aerobacter aerogenes

Biochemisch Laboratorium, en Afdeling Microbiologie, Botanisch Laboratorium, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam-Buitenveldert, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

The influence of growth conditions on assimilatory and respiratory nitrate reduction in Aerobacter aerogenes was studied. The level of nitrate reductase activity in cells, growing in minimal medium with nitrate as the sole nitrogen source, was much lower under aerobic than anaerobic conditions. Further, the enzyme of the aerobic cultures was very sensitive to sonic disintegration, as distinct from the enzyme of anaerobic cultures. When a culture of A. aerogenes was shifted from anaerobic growth in minimal medium with nitrate and NH₄⁺ to aerobiosis in the same medium, but without NH₄⁺, the production of nitrite stopped instantaneously and the total activity of nitrate reductase decreased sharply. Moreover, there was a lag in growth of about 3 hr after such a shift. After resumption of growth, the total enzymatic activity increased again slowly and simultaneously became gradually sensitive to sonic disintegration. These findings show that oxygen inactivates the anaerobic nitrate reductase and represses its further formation; only after a de novo synthesis of nitrate reductase with an assimilatory function will growth be resumed. The enzyme in aerobic cultures was not significantly inactivated by air, only by pure oxygen. The formation of the assimilatory enzyme complex was repressed, however, by NH₄⁺, under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The results indicate that the formation of the assimilatory enzyme complex and that of the respiratory enzyme complex are regulated differently. We suggest that both complexes have a different composition, but that the nitrate reductase in both cases is the same protein.

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