Abstract
Protoheme-synthesizing anaerobic bacteria were grown in the presence of metal-free deuteroporphyrin IX or selected metal chelates of deuteroporphyrin IX to determine whether anaerobes that synthesize protoheme-containing cytochrome b de novo would use preformed tetrapyrroles. Characteristic reduced versus oxidized difference spectra of whole cells and pyridine hemochromogen spectra revealed thatSelenomonas ruminantium subsp.lactilytica andBacteroides succinogenes synthesized protoheme-containing b-type cytochromes de novo during growth in the presence of the manganese or magnesium chelates of deuteroporphyrin IX, but thatBacteroides ruminicola subsp.brevis synthesized deuteroheme-containing cytochrome b under the same conditions. During growth of the latter organism in the presence of the vanadium, molybdenum, cobalt, or nickel chelates of deuteroporphyrin, protoheme cytochrome b was formed.Bacteroides ruminicola subsp.brevis had a unique and metal-specific ability to use preformed tetrapyrroles for cytochrome synthesis; that ability was absent in other cytochrome-synthesizing rumen bacteria.
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