The Respiratory System of Chromobacterium violaceum Grown under Conditions of High and Low Cyanide Evolution

Abstract

SUMMARYThe particulate fraction of disrupted Chromobacterium violaceum grown under cyanide-evolving conditions was unable to oxidize ascorbate plus N, N, ","-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine (TMPD), but oxidized NADH and succinate by a linear respiratory pathway which was very resistant to inhibition by cyanide. When the bacteria were grown under conditions where little cyanide evolution occurred, particulate fractions developed the ability to oxidize ascorbate-TMPD by a pathway highly sensitive to cyanide inhibition; respiratory activity with NADH and succinate proceeded via both the cyanide-sensitive and -resistant pathways. Studies with respiratory inhibitors, and the cytochrome compositions of the fractions derived from cultures grown under both conditions, are presented. A soluble, carbon monoxide-binding cytochrome c was found, and this appears similar to those found recently in Beneckea natriegens, methylotrophic bacteria and the marine pseudomonad B16.

Localization of tetramethylphenylenediamine-oxidase in the outer cell wall layer of Neisseria meningitidis

“…Relatively little is known, as yet, about bacterial oxidases, but information that is accumulating indicates that respiratory chains are branched in some organisms, with separate branches having terminal oxidases with individual properties (7,13,14).…”

Microorganisms and cyanide.

“…Inclusion of glycine in the growth medium resulted in a stimulation of cyanide production by a B-type isolate of the fungus growing in shake flasks on a glucose-basal salts medium (188). Unlike the response to it by bacteria (27,104,122,195), glycine here appeared to stimulate cyanide production during growth rather than in the stationary phase. However, this could have been due to cyanogen formation (see next section) in the logarithmic phase (184), since assay of cyanide was by steam distillation of the culture: the cyanide observed was the total of free cyanide plus heat-labile cyanogen.…”

“…aeruginosa: no cyanide was formed during lag and logarithmic growth phases, active cyanogenesis occurred during the transition from logarithmic to stationary phases, and limited cyanogenesis occurred in the stationary phase (27). The data of Michaels and Corpe (104) and Niven et al (122) show that there is a similar situation in C.…”

“…Both cyanide yield and rate of synthesis of cyanide in bacterial growth media are maximal at the start ofthe stationary phase (27,104,122,195). Castric noted three phases of cyanide formation during aerobic growth ofP.…”

“…C. violaceum, grown either under conditions ofhigh or low cyanide evolution, formed a complex complement of cytochromes (122). It has not so far been possible to determine which cytochrome is the cyanide-resistant oxidase.…”