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biochemical reaction mechanisms in sulfur oxidation by chemosynthetic bacteria

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Aspects of the biochemistry of the oxidation of inorganic sulfur compounds are discussed in thiobacilli but chiefly inThiobacillus denitrificans. Almost all of the thiobacilli (e.g. T. denitrificans, T. neapolitanus, T. novellus, andThiobacillus A 2) were capable of producing approximately 7.5 moles of sulfuric acid aerobically from 3.75 moles of thiosulfate per gram of cellular protein per hr. By far the most prolific producer of sulfuric acid (or sulfates) from the anaerobic thiosulfate oxidation with nitrates wasT. denitrificans which was capable of producing 15 moles of sulfates from 7.5 moles of thiosulfate with concomitant reduction of 12 moles of nitrate resulting in the evolution of 6 moles of nitrogen gas/g protein/hr. The oxidation of sulfide was mediated by the flavo-protein system and cytochromes ofb, c, o, anda-type. This process was sensitive to flavoprotein inhibitors, antimycin A, and cyanide. The aerobic thiosulfate oxidation on the other hand involved cytochromec : O2 oxidoreductase region of the electron transport chain and was sensitive to cyanide only. The anaerobic oxidation of thiosulfate byT. denitrificans, however, was severely inhibited by the flavoprotein inhibitors because of the splitting of the thiosulfate molecule into the sulfide and sulfite moieties produced by the thiosulfate-reductase. Accumulation of tetrathionate and to a small extent trithionate and pentathionate occurred during anaerobic growth ofT. denitrificans. These polythionates were subsequently oxidized to sulfate with the concomitant reduction of nitrate to N2. Intact cell suspensions catalyzed the complete oxidation of sulfide, thiosulfate, tetrathionate, and sulfite to sulfate with the stoichiometric reduction of nitrate, nitrite, nitric oxide, and nitrous oxide to nitrogen gas thus indicating that NO2 −, NO, and N2O are the possible intermediates in the denitrification of nitrate. This process was mediated by the cytochrome electron transport chain and was sensitive to the electron transfer inhibitors. The oxidation of sulfite involved cytochrome-linked sulfite oxidase as well as the APS-reductase pathways. The latter was absent inT. novellus andThiobacillus A 2. In all of the thiobacilli the inner as well as the outer sulfur atoms of thiosulfate were oxidized at approximately the same rate by intact cells. The sulfide oxidation occurred in two stages: (a) a cellular-membrane-associated initial and rapid oxidation reaction which was dependent upon sulfide concentration, and (b) a slower oxidation reaction stage catalyzed by the cellfree extracts, probably involving polysulfides. InT. novellus andT. neapolitanus the oxidation of inorganic sulfur compounds is coupled to energy generation through oxidative phosphorylation, however, the reduction of pyridine nucleotides by sulfur compounds involved an energy-linked reversal of electron transfer.

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  1. Thomas Hunt Morgan School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

    M. I. H. Aleem

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Paper read at the Symposium on the Sulphur Cycle, Wageningen, May 1974. Summary already inserted on p. 189 of the present volume.

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Aleem, M.I.H. biochemical reaction mechanisms in sulfur oxidation by chemosynthetic bacteria. Plant Soil 43, 587–607 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01928521

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