Abstract
Average specific density of individual cells of pure cultures of Chromatium warmingii and Chromatium vinosum were measured by isopicnic gradient centrifugation with Percoll during growth at constant illumination as a function of the increasing content of intracellular sulfur. Cell number and volume, bacteriochlorophyll a, sulfide, and sulfur were followed in the cultures along with cellular buoyant density. Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate was monitored at several points during growth of the cultures. The density of C. warmingii changed from 1.071 to 1.108 g cm-3 (sulfur content per cell varied from 0 to 1.71pg). C. vinosum changed its density from 1.096 to 1.160 g cm-3 (sulfur content per cell varied from 0 to 0.43 pg). Maximum sulfur content in pg of sulfur per μm3 of cell volume were 0.178 for C. warmingii and 0.294 for C. vinosum. Measurement of the differences in buoyant density, volume and sulfur content before and after ethanol extraction of cells with and without intracellular sulfur, allowed tentatively to estimate the density of sulfur inside the cells as 1.219 g cm-3. Isolation of sulfur globules and centrifugation in density gradients gave a density higher than 1.143 g cm-3 for these intracellular inclusions.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Abbreviations
- Bchl:
-
Bacteriochlorophyll
- DMB:
-
Density Marker Beads
- PHB:
-
poly-β-hydroxybutyrate
References
Bakken LR, Olsen RA (1983) Buoyant densities and dry-matter contents of microorganisms: Conversion of a measured biovolume into biomass. Appl Environ Microbiol 45:1188–1195
Birnboim HC, Doly J (1979) A rapid alkaline extraction procedure for screening recombinant plasmid DNA. Nucleic Acid Res 7:1513–1523
Doetsch RN, Cook TM (1973) Introduction to Bacteria and their Ecobiology. Medical and Technical Pub. Co. Ltd., Lancaster
Donachie WD, Begg KJ, Vicente M (1976) Cell length, cell growth and cell division. Nature (Lond) 264:328–333
Faegri A, Torsvik VL, Goksøyr J (1977) Bacterial and fungal activities in soil: separation of bacteria and fungi by a rapid fractionated centrifugation technique. Soil Biol Biochem 9:105–112
Guerrero R, Montesinos E, Esteve I, Abellà C (1980) Physiological adaptation and growth of purple and green sulfur bacteria in a meromictic lake (Vilar) as compared to a holomictic lake (Sisó). In: Dokulil M, Metz H, Jewson D (eds) Shallow Lakes. Developments in hydrobiology, vol 3. W. Junk, The Hague, pp 161–171
Herbert D, Phipps PJ, Strange RE (1971) Chemical analysis of microbial cells. In: Norris JR, Ribbons DW (eds) Methods in microbiology, vol 5B. Academic Press, London, pp 209–344
Herrero E, Aldea M, Ros J, Monfort JM, Guerrero R (1982) Regulation of cellular division in Salmonella typhimurium. Effect of RNA accumulation and cellular density. In: Jiménez-Sánchez A, Guerrero R (eds) Bacterial molecular genetics. Ed. Reverté, Barcelona, pp 265–283 (In Spanish)
Koch AL, Blumberg G (1976) Distribution of bacteria in the velocity gradient centrifuge. Biophys J 16:389–405
Marr AG, Harvey RJ, Trentini WC (1966) Growth and division of E. coli. J Bacteriol 91:2388–2389
Martin PAW, Dugan PR, Tuovinen OH (1981) Differentiation of acidophilic thiobacilli by cell density in renografin gradients. Curr Microbiol 6:81–84
Martínez-Salas E, Martín JA, Vicente M (1981) Relationships of Escherichia coli density to growth rate and cell age. J Bacteriol 147:97–100
Montesinos E, Esteve I, Guerrero R (1983) Comparison between direct methods for determination of microbial cell volume: Electron microscopy and electronic particle sizing. Appl Environ Microbiol 45:1651–1658
Parkin TB, Brock TD (1980) The effects of light quality on the growth of photosynthetic bacteria in lakes. Arch Microbiol 125:19–27
Pedrós-Alió C, Brock TD (1982) Assessing biomass and production of bacteria in eutrophic Lake Mendota, Wisconsin. Appl Environ Microbiol 44:203–218
Pfennig N, Trüper HG (1981) Isolation of members of the families Chromatiaceae and Chlorobiaceae. In: Starr MP, Stolp H, Trüper HG, Balows A, Schlegel HG (eds) The prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 279–289
Poindexter JS, Eley LF (1983) Combined procedure for assays of poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid and inorganic polyphosphate. J Microbiol Methods 1:1–17
Poole K (1977) Fluctuations in buoyant density during the cell cycle of Escherichia coli K12: significance for the preparation of synchronous cultures by age selection. J Gen Microbiol 98:177–186
Shehata TA, Marr AG (1971) Effect of nutrient concentration on the growth of E. coli. J Bacteriol 107:210–216
Shively JM (1974) Inclusion bodies of prokaryotes. Ann Rev Microbiol 28:167–187
Stanier RY, Adelberg EA, Ingraham JL (1976) The microbial world, 4th edn. Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Strohl WR, Howard KS, Larkin JM (1982) Ultrastructure of Beggiatoa alba strain B15LD. J Gen Microbiol 128:73–84
Tisa LS, Koshikawa T, Gerhardt P (1982) Wet and dry bacterial spore densities determined by buoyant sedimentation. Appl Environ Microbiol 43:1307–1310
Vaituzis Z, Doetsch RN (1969) Motility tracks: technique for quantitative study of bacterial movement. Appl Microbiol 17:584–588
Van Gemerden H (1968) Utilization of reducing power in growing cultures of Chromatium. Arch Mikrobiol 64:111–117
Van Gemerden H (1980) Survival of Chromatium vinosum at low light intensities. Arch Microbiol 125:115–121
Van Veen JA, Paul EA (1979) Conversion of biovolume measurements of soil organisms, grown under various moisture tensions, to biomass and their nutrient content. Appl Environ Microbiol 37:686–692
Watson CL, Novitsky TJ, Quinby HL, Valois FW (1977) Determination of bacterial number and biomass in the marine environment. Appl Environ Microbiol 33:940–954
Weast RC (ed) (1972) Handbook of chemistry and physics. 52nd edn. Chemical Rubber Co. Press, Cleveland, Ohio
Woldringh CL, Binnerts JS, Mans A (1981) Variation in Escherichia coli buoyant density measured in Percoll gradients. J Bacteriol 148:58–63
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guerrero, R., Mas, J. & Pedrós-Alió, C. Buoyant density changes due to intracellular content of sulfur in Chromatium warmingii and Chromatium vinosum . Arch. Microbiol. 137, 350–356 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00410733
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00410733