Characterization of nitrogen-fixing bacteria from a temperate saltmarsh lagoon, including isolates that produce ethane from acetylene

Abstract

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria were isolated from sediments and water of a saltmarsh lagoon on the west coast of South Africa, and characterized according to factors that regulate nitrogen fixation in the marine environment. The majority of isolates were assigned to the Photobacterium or Vibrio genera on the basis of physiological and biochemical characteristics. One isolate was further assigned to the species Vibrio diazotrophicus. Carbohydrate utilization by each diazotrophic isolate was examined. Abilities of the isolates to utilize a range of mono-, di-, and polysaccharides largely reflected the predicted availability of organic carbon and energy in the lagoon, except that chitin was not utilized. Biochemical tests on the utilization of combined nitrogen showed that one isolate could utilize nitrate, and that this strain was susceptible to full repression of nitrogenase activity by 10mM nitrate. Urease activity was not detected in any of the isolates. In the absence of molybdenum two of the isolates, a Photobacterium spp. and V. diazotrophicus, reduced acetylene to ethylene and ethane, a property frequently associated with the activity of alternative nitrogenases. Addition of 25µM molybdenum inhibited ethane production by V. diazotrophicus, but stimulated ethylene and ethane production by the Photobacterium isolate. Addition of 28µM vanadium did not appear to regulate ethane production by either strain. Assays of nitrogenase activity in sediments from which some isolates were obtained indicated that molybdenum was not limiting nitrogenase activity at naturally-occurring concentrations. Southern hybridizations of the chromosomes of these strains with the anfH and vnfH genes of Azotobacter vinelandii and the nifH gene of Klebsiella pneumoniae indicated the presence of only one nitrogenase in these isolates.