Oxidation of H2, organic compounds and inorganic sulfur compounds coupled to reduction of O2 or nitrate by sulfate-reducing bacteria

Abstract

All of fourteen sulfate-reducing bacteria tested were able to carry out aerobic respiration with at least one of the following electron donors: H2, lactate, pyruvate, formate, acetate, butyrate, ethanol, sulfide, thiosulfate, sulfite. Generally, we did not obtain growth with O2 as electron acceptor. The bacteria were microaerophilic, since the respiration rates increased with decreasing O2 concentrations or ceased after repeated O2 additions. The amounts of O2 consumed indicated that the organic substrates were oxidized incompletely to acetate; only Desulfobacter postgatei oxidized acetate with O2 completely to CO2. Many of the strains oxidized sulfite (completely to sulfate) or sulfide (incompletely, except Desulfobulbus propionicus); thiosulfate was oxidized only by strains of Desulfovibrio desulfuricans; trithionate and tetrathionate were not oxidized by any of the strains. With Desulfovibrio desulfuricans CSN and Desulfobulbus propionicus the oxidation of inorganic sulfur compounds was characterized in detail. D. desulfuricans formed sulfate during oxidation of sulfite, thiosulfate or elemental sulfur prepared from polysulfide. D. propionicus oxidized sulfite and sulfide to sulfate, and elemental sulfur mainly to thiosulfate. A novel pathway that couples the sulfur and nitrogen cycles was detected: D. desulfuricans and (only with nitrite) D. propionicus were able to completely oxidize sulfide coupled to the reduction of nitrate or nitrite to ammonia. Cell-free extracts of both strains did not oxidize sulfide or thiosulfate, but formed ATP during oxidation of sulfite (37 nmol per 100 nmol sulfite). This, and the effects of AMP, pyrophosphate and molybdate on sulfite oxidation, suggested that sulfate is formed via the (reversed) sulfate activation pathway (involving APS reductase and ATP sulfurylase). Thiosulfate oxidation with O2 probably required a reductive first step, since it was obtained only with energized intact cells.