Growth of Rhodopseudomonas palustris under phototrophic and non-phototrophic conditions and its CO-dependent H2 production

Abstract

A new hydrogen producing bacterium, Rhodopseudomonas palustris P4, originally isolated under an anaerobic/phototrophic condition, grew well under aerobic/chemoheterotrophic or anaerobic/chemoheterotrophic conditions and showed CO-dependent, H2 production activity when transferred to anaerobic conditions. Cell growth was best under an aerobic/chemoheterotrophic condition as the doubling time of 1 h, while the H2 production activity was highest in the cells grown under an aerobic/chemoheterotrophic condition at 20 mmol g−1 cell−1 h−1.