Physiological characterization of Pseudomonas putida DOT-T1E tolerance to p-hydroxybenzoate.

Pseudomonas putida DOT-T1E was isolated as a toluene-tolerant strain. We show that it is also able to grow on high concentrations (up to 17 g/liter [123 mM]) of p-hydroxybenzoate (4HBA). Tolerance to this aromatic carboxylic acid (up to 30 g/liter [217 mM]) is improved by preexposing the cells to low 4HBA concentrations; the adaptation process is caused by the substrate itself rather than by products resulting from its metabolism. The mechanisms of 4HBA tolerance seem to involve increased rigidity of the cell membrane as a result of a decrease in the cis/trans ratio of unsaturated fatty acids. In addition, energy-dependent efflux systems seem to operate in the exclusion of 4HBA from the cell membranes.

Improved expression of human interleukin-2 in high-cell-density fermentor cultures of Escherichia coli K-12 by a phosphotransacetylase mutant.

A fluoroacetate-resistant mutant of Escherichia coli K-12 (MM-294) accumulated less acetate in the medium during growth to high cell density in fermentor cultures and was shown to be defective in its phosphotransacetylase activity. The mutant had an improved ability to continue growing during induction of interleukin-2 (IL-2) synthesis, and in fermentor cultures it gave a higher level of specific IL-2 accumulation than its parent during expression under control of the temperature-sensitive pL promoter. In flask cultures at lower cell density, the mutant again produced less acetate than the parent, although both showed a much lower level of acetate accumulation than that seen in fermentors at high cell density. Both showed a higher specific expression level of IL-2 in flask cultures, and there was a greater difference between the mutant and its parent in the final extent of specific IL-2 accumulation in fermentor cultures compared with flask cultures. Thus, the concentration of acetate in the medium, which was much higher in fermentor cultures (greater than or equal to 300 mM after 5 h of induction) than in flask cultures (less than or equal to mM) of the parent organism, was a significant factor in limiting expression of the heterologous protein product, IL-2. The acetate kinase-phosphotransacetylase pathway was therefore a major source of acetate formation in these cultures. Blocking this pathway improved accumulation of IL-2 and did not slow growth.

Fermentation of corn starch to ethanol with genetically engineered yeast.

Expression of the glucoamylase gene from Aspergillus awamori by laboratory and distiller's strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae allowed them to ferment soluble starch. Approximately 95% of the carbohydrates in the starch were utilized. Glycerol production was significantly decreased when soluble starch was used instead of glucose. Ethanol yield on soluble starch was higher than that on glucose. The rate of starch fermentation was directly related to the level of glucoamylase activity. Strains with higher levels of glucoamylase expression fermented starch faster. The decline in starch fermentation rates toward the end of the fermentation was associated with accumulation of disaccharides and limit dextrins, poor substrates for glucoamylase. The buildup of these products in continuous fermentations inhibited glucoamylase activity and complete utilization of the starch. Under these conditions maltose-fermenting strains had a significant advantage over nonfermenting strains. The synthesis and secretion of glucoamylase showed no deleterious effects on cell growth rates, fermetation rates, and fermentation products.

Processing of the initiation methionine from proteins: properties of the Escherichia coli methionine aminopeptidase and its gene structure.

Methionine aminopeptidase (MAP) catalyzes the removal of amino-terminal methionine from proteins. The Escherichia coli map gene encoding this enzyme was cloned; it consists of 264 codons and encodes a monomeric enzyme of 29,333 daltons. In vitro analyses with purified enzyme indicated that MAP is a metallo-oligopeptidase with absolute specificity for the amino-terminal methionine. The methionine residues from the amino-terminal end of the recombinant proteins interleukin-2 (Met-Ala-Pro-IL-2) and ricin A (Met-Ile-Phe-ricin A) could be removed either in vitro with purified MAP enzyme or in vivo in MAP-hyperproducing strains of E. coli. In vitro analyses of the substrate preference of the E. coli MAP indicated that the residues adjacent to the initiation methionine could significantly influence the methionine cleavage process. This conclusion is consistent, in general, with the deduced specificity of the enzyme based on the analysis of known amino-terminal sequences of intracellular proteins (S. Tsunasawa, J. W. Stewart, and F. Sherman, J. Biol. Chem. 260:5382-5391, 1985).

Ethanol Production by Thermophilic Bacteria: Fermentation of Cellulosic Substrates by Cocultures of Clostridium thermocellum and Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum.

The fermentation of various saccharides derived from cellulosic biomass to ethanol was examined in mono- and cocultures of Clostridium thermocellum strain LQRI and C. thermohydrosulfuricum strain 39E. C. thermohydrosulfuricum fermented glucose, cellobiose, and xylose, but not cellulose or xylan, and yielded ethanol/acetate ratios of >7.0. C. thermocellum fermented a variety of cellulosic substrates, glucose, and cellobiose, but not xylan or xylose, and yielded ethanol/acetate ratios of approximately 1.0. At nonlimiting cellulosic substrate concentrations ( approximately 1%), C. thermocellum cellulase hydrolysis products accumulated during monoculture fermentation of Solka Floc cellulose and included glucose, cellobiose, xylose, and xylobiose. A stable coculture that contained nearly equal numbers of C. thermocellum and C. thermohydrosulfuricum was established that fermented a variety of cellulosic substrates, and the ethanol yield observed was twofold higher than in C. thermocellum monoculture fermentations. The metabolic basis for the enhanced fermentation effectiveness of the coculture on Solka Floc cellulose included: the ability of C. thermocellum cellulase to hydrolyze alpha-cellulose and hemicellulose; the enhanced utilization of mono- and disaccharides by C. thermohydrosulfuricum; increased cellulose consumption; threefold increase in the ethanol production rate; and twofold decrease in the acetate production rate. The coculture actively fermented MN300 cellulose, Avicel, Solka Floc, SO(2)-treated wood, and steam-exploded wood. The highest ethanol yield obtained was 1.8 mol of ethanol per mol of anhydroglucose unit in MN300 cellulose.

Ethanol production by thermophilic bacteria: metabolic control of end product formation in Thermoanaerobium brockii.

Specific changes in the chemical and microbial composition of Thermoanaerobium brockii fermentations were compared and related to alterations of process rates, end product yields, and growth parameters. Fermentation of starch as compared with glucose was associated with significant decreases in growth rate and intracellular fructose-1,6-bisphosphate concentration and with a dramatic increase in the ethanol/lactate product ratio. Glucose or pyruvate fermentation in the presence of acetone was correlated with increased substrate consumption, growth (both rate and yield), acetate yield, and quantitative reduction of acetone to isopropanol in lieu of normal reduced fermentation products (i.e., H2, ethanol, lactate). Acetone altered pyruvate phosphoroclastic activity of cell extracts in that H2, lactate, and ethanol levels decreased, whereas the acetate concentration increased. Glucose fermentation in the presence of exogenous hydrogen was associated with inhibition of endogenous H2 production and either increased ethanol/acetate product ratios and decreased growth at less than 0.5 atm (51 kPa) of H2 or total growth inhibition at 1.0 atm (102 kPA). The effects of exogenous hydrogen on glucose fermentation were totally reversed by the addition of acetone. Glucose fermentation in coculture with Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum correlated with increased growth (both rate and yield), acetate yield, and the formation of methane in lieu of monoculture reduced products. In coculture, but not monoculture, T. brockii grew on ethanol as the energy source, and acetate and methane were the end products as a direct consequence of hydrogen consumption by the methanogen.

Thermophilic ethanol fermentations.

Thermophilic ethanol fermentations are of interest to industrial alcohol production because both the pentose and hexose fraction of biomass can be directly fermented in high yield (i.e., mol ethanol/mol substrate consumed), and because of potential novel process features associated with high temperature operation. As a net result, the co-culture cellulose fermentations described here may have the potential to convert more substrate to alcohol than some other bioconversion systems described [see Figure 11, (2)]. However, considerably more fundamental and applied research is required before realistic economic assessments can be made. Detailed analysis of the data presented above suggests key control parameters for thermophilic ethanol production (see Table IX). Understanding in detail the physiological and biochemical features that control rate limitation, yield limitation and concentration limitation appears to me as trends for future applied and fundamental studies on thermophilic ethanologenic bacteria. It is worth noting from the data reviewed here that understanding control of any one of these 3 major limitations is complex and multi-faceted. Indeed, improvement of ethanol tolerance (i.e. the ability to produce greater than 1% ethanol at high rates) in these bacteria appears to involve challenges by all three limitations. Furthermore, the biochemical basis for alcohol tolerance in thermophilic ethanologens appears to vary in different species. For example, the ethanol dehydrogenase of C. thermocellum is inhibited by physiological concentrations of alcohol (i.e. 1%) whereas, the reversible activity of T. brockii or C. thermohydrosulfuricum enzyme is increased by higher solvent concentration (greater than 5%).

Microbiology of methanogenesis in thermal, volcanic environments.

Microbial methanogenesis was examined in thermal waters, muds, and decomposing algal-bacterial mats associated with volcanic activity in Yellowstone National Park. Radioactive tracer studies with [(14)C]glucose, acetate, or carbonate and enrichment culture techniques demonstrated that methanogenesis occurred at temperatures near 70 degrees C but below 80 degrees C and correlated with hydrogen production from either geothermal processes or microbial fermentation. Three Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum strains (YT1, YTA, and YTC) isolated from diverse volcanic habitats differed from the neotype sewage strain DeltaH in deoxyribonucleic acid guanosine-plus-cytosine content and immunological properties. Microbial methanogenesis was characterized in more detail at a 65 degrees C site in the Octopus Spring algal-bacterial mat ecosystem. Here methanogenesis was active, was associated with anaerobic microbial decomposition of biomass, occurred concomitantly with detectable microbial hydrogen formation, and displayed a temperature activity optimum near 65 degrees C. Enumeration studies estimated more than 10(9) chemoorganotrophic hydrolytic bacteria and 10(6) chemolithotrophic methanogenic bacteria per g (dry weight) of algal-bacterial mat. Enumeration, enrichment, and isolation studies revealed that the microbial population was predominantly rod shaped and asporogenous. A prevalent chemoorganotrophic organism in the mat that was isolated from an end dilution tube was a taxonomically undescribed gram-negative obligate anaerobe (strain HTB2), whereas a prevalent chemolithotrophic methanogen isolated from an end dilution tube was identified as M. thermoautotrophicum (strain YTB). Taxonomically recognizable obligate anaerobes that were isolated from glucose and xylose enrichment cultures included Thermoanaerobium brockii strain HTB and Clostridium thermohydrosulfuricum strain 39E. The nutritional properties, growth temperature optima, growth rates, and fermentation products of thermophilic bacterial strains 39E, HTB2, and YTB were determined.

Distribution of methanol carbon between assimilation and oxidation pathways in methanol-grown Pseudomonas C.

In Pseudomonas C, a facultative methylotrophic bacterium, methanol is assimilated via the 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate (KDPG) variant of the ribulose monophosphate (RMP) pathway of formaldehyde fixation. The oxidation of methanol to CO2 is accomplished by the direct oxidation pathway (which involves formic acid as an oxidation intermediate), via a cyclic oxidation pathway (glucose monophosphate shunt) and by other decarboxylation reactions. The distribution pattern of methanol carbon among the assimilation and the different oxidation pathways was studied by measuring the distribution between CO2 and cell constituents of 14C-labelled compounds after their injection into a culture growing on methanol in a chemostat. From these measurements, it was calculated that 25% of the methanol consumed by the cells was oxidized through formate to CO2, while the remainder was diverted into the hexulosephosphate synthase reaction from which 55% was assimilated through the KDPG reaction and 17% was oxidized to CO2 via a cyclic oxidation pathway and other decarboxylation reactions. The remaining 7% from the methanol carbon was re-incorporated as CO2 into cell material through carboxylation reactions.

Purification and properties of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (NADP+/NAD+) and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (NADP+/NAD+) from methanol-grown Pseudomonas C.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (D-glucose-6-phosphate:NADPH+ 1-oxidoreductase, EC 1.1.1.49) and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6-phospho-D-gluconate:NADP+ 2-oxidoreductase, EC 1.1.1943) have been purified from methanol-grown Pseudomonas C. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase exhibits activity with either NADP+ or NAD+ as coenzymes, V NADP+ = 0.96 V NAD+.Km values of 22, 290, and 250 microns are obtained for NADP+, NAD+ and glucose 6-phosphate (NADP+ as the coenzyme), respectively. ATP inhibits Glc-6P dehydrogenase activity with NAD+ as coenzyme and to a less extent the activity with DANP+. In the presence of MgCl2, ATP inhibition of Blc-6P dehydrogeanse activity is abolished. 6-Phosphogluconate dehydrogenase has a dual specificity for both NADP+ or NAD+ as coenzymes, V NADP+ = 1.66 V NAD+.Km values of 20, 500 and 100 microns are obtained for NADP+, NAD+ and 6-phosphogluconate (NADP+ as the coenzyme), respectively. With NAD+ as the coenzyme ATP inhibits 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogeanse activity, while with NADP+ as the coenzyme, activity was less affected. The possible role of these enzymes in the metabolism of one-carbon (C1)-compounds in Pseudomonas C is discussed and compared with other methylotrophic microorganisms.

Oxidation of C1-compounds in Pseudomonas C.

Extracts of Pseudomonas C grown on methanol as a sole carbon and energy source contain a methanol dehydrogenase activity which can be coupled to phenazine methosulfate. This enzyme catalyzes two reactions namely the conversion of methanol to formaldehyde (phenazine methosulfate coupled) and the oxidation of formaldehyde to formate (2,6-dichloroindophenol-coupled). Activities of glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase (NAD+) and formate dehydrogenase (NAD+) were also detected in the extracts. The addition of D-ribulose 5-phosphate to the reaction mixtures caused a marked increase in the formaldehyde-dependent reduction of NAD+ or NADP+. In addition, the oxidation of [14C]formaldehyde to CO2, by extracts of Pseudomonas C, increased when D-ribulose 5-phosphate was present in the assay mixtures. The amount of radioactivity found in CO2, was 6;8-times higher when extracts of methanol-grown Pseudomonas C were incubated for a short period of time with [1-14C]glucose 6-phosphate than with [U-14C]glucose 6-phosphate. These data, and the presence of high specific activities of hexulose phosphate synthase, phosphoglucoisomerase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase indicate that in methanol-grown Pseudomonas C, formaldehyde carbon is oxidized to CO2 both via a cyclic pathway which includes the enzymes mentioned and via formate as an oxidation intermediate, with the former predominant.

Bacterial yields on methanol, methylamine, formaldehyde, and formate.

Several bacteria utilizing C1-compounds as sole carbon sources were grown on these substrates in continuous culture. The molar yield values (g of cell dry wt/mol of substrate utilized) of bacteria which utilize C1-compounds via the ribulose monophosphate pathway were between 15.7 to 17.3 when grown on methanol; while the molar yield values of bacteria which use the serine pathway for the assimilation of C1-compounds varied between 9.8 and 13.1. The molar yield values of different bacteria which use the serine pathway decreased as the oxidation levels of the C1-growth substrates increased. On formaldehyde the values were between 7.2 to 9.6, whereas on formate the values varied from 3.3 to 6.9. It appears that bacteria utilize C1-compounds more efficiently via the ribulose monophosphate pathway than via the serine pathway. The oxidation step from methanol to formaldehyde (and from methylamine to formaldehyde) in the bacteria studied may be energy yielding. A comparison has been made between the experimental yield values obtained and theoretical values.

Quaternary pilocarpine derivatives as potential acetylcholine antagonists. 2. Alterations in the lactone and imidazole moieties.

In order to investigate the chemical behavior of pilocarpine, as well as the factors which determine its pharmacological activity, systematic and specific structural changes involving the lactone and imidazole moieties have been performed. Series of model compounds with cyclic or open-chain structures and a variety of N-3 bonded chains obtained from previously prepared anticholinergic derivatives of pilocarpine have been synthesized. The changes included N-3 chains of different lengths with an acetylcholine-like structure, the introduction of nucleophilic groups such as ketoxime, hydroxamic, or both at the side chain, or following hydroxylaminolysis of the lactone, respectively. Specific structural alterations could be obtained by reacting with free hydroxylamine under carefully controlled conditions, and the existence of syn and anti isomers was disclosed in certain cases. The new groups in the pilocarpine derivatives influenced their degree of antagonism to acetylcholine. Several compounds displayed some antidotal activity.

Determination of potassium with alkali-heavy metal cobaltinitrites.

A procedure is proposed for the removal and determination of K(+) by precipitation with [Co(NO(2))(6)](3-) in the presence of Pb(2+) and H(2)O(2). The whole precipitate is dissolved, the Co(3+) estimated colorimetrically, and the K(+) content calculated, with a relative error of 1%. The potassium-containing precipitate may also be dissolved in NaOH + NH(3) solution, the Co(3+) titrated complexometrically, and the potassium content deduced. These two procedures may be modified for the removal and determination of Pb(2+), Co(2+), Co(3+) and NO(2)(-). Na(+) ions do not interfere.