The acetylene reduction technique as an assay for nitrogenase activity in the methane oxidizing bacterium Methylococcus capsulatus strain bath

Autor: Roger Whittenbury, Howard Dalton
Rok vydání: 1976
Předmět:
Zdroj: Archives of Microbiology. 109:147-151
ISSN: 1432-072X
0302-8933
DOI: 10.1007/bf00425127
Popis: The use of acetylene as a convenient assay substrate for nitrogenase in methane oxidising bacteria is complicated by the observation that it is a potent inhibitor of the methane monooxygenase enzyme in both whole cells and cell-free extracts. If the cells were provided with alternative oxidisable carbon substrates other than methane then nitrogen fixing cells would reduce acetylene to ethylene. Hydrogen gas also served as an oxidisable substrate in the assay. Nitrous oxide, which is reduced by nitrogenase to N2 and H2O, was not an inhibitor of methane monooxygenase function and could be used as a convenient assay substrate for nitrogenase. Reduction of both substrates by whole cells showed similar response to oxygen in the assay system and in this respect Methylococcus resembles other free living nitrogen fixing aerobes.
Databáze: OpenAIRE