Abstract
Thiobacillus novellus cannot be grown in mineral salts media unless supplied with yeast extract. The requirement is only for miniscule amounts of yeast extract and is not fully expressed unless cells grown in a complex medium are allowed to multiply in a mineral salts medium for four to five generations. Individual sulfur-containing organic compounds, namely biotin, coenzyme A, and lipoic acid, but not reduced inorganic sulfur compounds, can substitute for the yeast extract requirement. Biotin can fully satisfy this requirement at a concentration insufficient to fulfill the biosynthetic sulfur needs; further, the organisms continue to incorporate 35SO4 into cellular protein in the presence of yeast extract or biotin. It is concluded that biotin is required as a growth factor and not owing to an inability to obtain sulfur from sulfate; the reasons why coenzyme A and thiamine pyrophosphate can substitute for biotin are discussed.
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Abbreviations
- MS:
-
Mineral Salts Base
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Matin, A., Kahan, F.J. & Leefeldt, R.H. Growth factor requirement of Thiobacillus novellus . Arch. Microbiol. 124, 91–95 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00407034
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00407034