Abstract

Like mitochondria, plasma membranes of the free-living bacterium Paracoccus denitrificans are able to produce superoxide ions. The production of superoxide ions was observed during the initial stages of electron transfer from the respiratory substrates to oxygen, even when the bacteria had been grown anaerobically on nitrate as oxidant. Generation of Superoxide anions was supported by NADH or succinate and occurred before the antimycin-sensitive site of the respiratory chain, presumably at the level of a low potential redox component. Superoxide anion formation was pH and substrate dependent; it was inhibited by cyanide and by exogenous superoxide dismutase.

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