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Simultaneous heterolactic and acetate fermentation in the marine cyanobacterium Oscillatoria limosa incubated anaerobically in the dark

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Abstract

The marine nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Oscillatoria limosa, strain 23 (Oldenburg) was investigated with respect to its dark anaerobic metabolism. As soon as the cells were incubated anaerobically in the dark, they started to ferment. Glycogen was presumably degraded via the heterolactic fermentative pathway. Glycogen-glucose was degraded to equimolar amounts of lactate, ethanol and carbon dioxide. The disaccharide trehalose, which serves as an osmoprotectant in O. limosa, was also catabolized. Most probably, this compound was fermented almost exclusively to acetate. Some hydrogen was produced as well. In the presence of elemental sulfur, fermentative hydrogen production ceased and sulfide was produced instead. The presence of elemental sulfur had no effect on the amounts and ratios of the fermentation products produced.

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  1. Lucas Stal

    Present address: Laboratory of Microbiology, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 127, NL-1018 WS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AG Geomikrobiologie, Universität Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118, D-2900, Oldenburg, Germany

    Heike Heyer, Lucas Stal & Wolfgang E. Krumbein

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  1. Heike Heyer
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  2. Lucas Stal
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  3. Wolfgang E. Krumbein
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Heyer, H., Stal, L. & Krumbein, W.E. Simultaneous heterolactic and acetate fermentation in the marine cyanobacterium Oscillatoria limosa incubated anaerobically in the dark. Arch. Microbiol. 151, 558–564 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00454875

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00454875

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