Abstract
Five chemolithotrophic bacteria were tested for their ability to incorporate [methyl-3H] thymidine. None of the bacteria incorporated the label, even after incubation for 24 hours. The inability of these bacteria to incorporate thymidine appears to be due to an absence of transport mechanisms for exogenous nucleosides. As a result of these findings, it is concluded that activities deduced from labeled thymidine incorporation measurements probably do not include the activity of chemolithotrophic bacteria.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amy PS, Morita RY (1983) Starvation-survival patterns of sixteen freshly isolated open-ocean bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 45:1109–1115
Beck CF, Ingraham JL, Neuhard J, Thomassen E (1972) Metabolism of pyrimidines and pyrimidine nucleosides bySalmonella typhimurium. J Bacteriol 110:219–228
Bern L (1985) Autoradiographic studies of [methyI-3H] thymidine incorporation in a cyanobacterium (Microcystis wesenbergii)-bacterium association and in selected algae and bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 49:232–243
Chrzanowski TH (1988) Consequences of accounting for isotopic dilution in thymidine incorporation assays. Appl Environ Microbiol 54:1868–1870
Coveney MF, Wetzel RG (1988) Experimental evaluation of conversion factors for the [3H] thymidine incorporation assay of bacterial secondary productivity. Appl Environ Microbiol 54:2018–2026
Fuhrman JA, Azam F (1980) Bacterioplankton secondary production estimates for coastal waters of British Columbia, Antarctica, and California. Appl Environ Microbiol 39:1085–1095
Fuhrman JA, Azam F (1982) Thymidine incorporation as a measure of heterotrophic bacterioplankton production in marine surface waters: evaluation and field results. Mar Biol 66:109–120
Glaser VM, Al-Nui MA, Groshev VV, Shestakov SV (1973) The labelling of nucleic acids by radioactive precursors in the blue green algae. Arch Microbiol 92:217–226
Grivell AR, Jackson JF (1968) Thymidine kinase: evidence for its absence fromNeurospora crassa and some other micro-organisms, and the relevance of this to the specific labelling of deoxyribonucleic acid. J Gen Microbiol 54:307–317
Hochstadt J (1974) The role of the membrane in the utilization of nucleic acid precursors. CRC Crit Rev Biochem 2:259–310
Hooper AB (1984) Ammonia oxidation and energy transduction in the nitrifying bacteria. In: Strohl WR, Tuovinen OH (eds) Microbial chemoautotrophy. Ohio State University Press, Columbus, pp 133–168
Jonas RB, Tuttle JH, Stoner DL, Ducklow HW (1988) Dual-label radioisotope method for simultaneously measuring bacterial production and metabolism in natural waters. Appl Environ Microbiol 54:791–798
Jones RD, Hood MA (1980) Effects of temperature, pH, salinity, and inorganic nitrogen on the rate of ammonium oxidation by nitrifiers isolated from wetland environments. Microb Ecol 6:339–347
Jones RD, Morita RY, Koops H-P, Watson SW (1988) A new marine ammonium-oxidizing bacterium,Nitrosomonas cryotolerans sp. nov. Can J Microbiol 34:1122–1128
Karl DM (1982) Selected nucleic acid precursors in studies of aquatic microbial ecology. Appl Environ Microbiol 44:891–902
Karl DM, Knauer GA, Martin JH, Ward BB (1984) Bacterial chemolithotrophy in the ocean is associated with sinking particles. Nature (London) 309:54–56
Moriarty DJW (1985) Measurement of bacterial growth rates in aquatic systems from fates of nucleic acid synthesis. Adv Microbial Ecol 9:245–292
Moriarty DJW, Pollard PC (1981) DNA synthesis as a measure of bacterial productivity in seagrass sediments. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 5:151–156
Moriarty DJW, Pollard PC (1982) Diel variation of bacterial productivity in seagrass (Zostera capricorni) beds measured by rate of thymidine incorporation into DNA. Mar Biol 72:165–172
Munch-Peterson A, Mygind B, Nicolaisen A, Pihl NJ (1979) Nucleoside transport in cells and membrane vesicles fromEscherichia coli K12. J Biol Chem 254:3730–3737
Pollard PC, Moriarty DJW (1984) Validity of the tritiated thymidine method for estimating bacterial growth rates: the measurement of isotope dilution during DNA synthesis. Appl Environ Microbiol 48:1076–1083
Smits JD, Riemann B (1988) Calculation of cell production from [3H]thymidine incorporation with freshwater bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 54:2213–2219
Torella F, Morita RY (1981) Microcultural study of bacterial size changes and microcolony and ultramicrocolony formation by heterotrophic bacteria in seawater. Appl Environ Microbiol 41:518–527
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Johnstone, B.H., Jones, R.D. A Study on the lack of [methyl-3H] thymidine uptake and incorporation by chemolithotrophic bacteria. Microb Ecol 18, 73–77 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02011697
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02011697