Measurement of total amine site concentrations on bacterial cell surfaces using selective site-blocking and potentiometric titrations

Abstract

Bacterial cell surface amine binding sites can form strong complexes with both toxic metal cations and anionic contaminants, thereby affecting the behavior of these contaminants in both natural and engineered systems. In this study, a novel approach was developed to measure the concentration of total amine sites on bacterial cell surfaces by combining selective site-blocking, potentiometric titrations and surface complexation modeling. Our controls show that the amine blocker sulfo-N-hydroxysulfosuccinimide acetate (SNHS) selectively reacts with primary and secondary amine sites but does not react with other binding sites on the bacterial cell surface. Amine site concentrations on bacterial cell surfaces, therefore, can be measured as the difference between the total site concentrations of un-blocked and SNHS-blocked bacterial samples. We measured amine site concentrations on Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas putida of 52 ± 5 and 78 ± 6 μmol/g, respectively, which account for 24% and 32% of the total binding sites on each bacterial surface. Our results suggest that amine sites can be present in relatively high concentrations on bacterial surfaces, and further studies that are focused on the role of cell surface amine sites on the transport and bioavailability of toxic metal cations and anionic contaminants are crucial.