Atomi, Haruyuki
(Ed.)
Proteins that oxidize extracellular substrates in Gram-positive bacteria are poorly understood. Ferrimicrobium acidiphilum is an actinobacterium that respires aerobically on extracellular ferrous ions at pH 1.5. In situ absorbance measurements were conducted on turbid suspensions of intact Fm. acidiphilum using an integrating cavity absorption meter designed for that purpose. Initial velocity kinetic studies monitored the appearance of product ferric ions in the presence of catalytic quantities of cells. Cell-catalyzed iron oxidation obeyed the Michaelis-Menten equation with values for KM and Vmax of 71 µM and 0.29 fmol/min/cell, respectively. Limited-turnover kinetic studies were conducted with higher concentrations of cells to detect and monitor changes in the absorbance properties of cellular redox proteins when the cells were exposed to limited quantities of soluble reduced iron. A single a-type cytochrome with reduced absorbance peaks at 448 and 605 nm was the only redox-active chromophore that was visible as the cells respired aerobically on iron. The reduced cytochrome 605 exhibited mathematical and correlational properties that were consistent with the hypothesis that oxidation of the cytochrome constituted the rate-limiting step in the aerobic respiratory process with a turnover number of 35 ± 2 s-1. Genomic and proteomic analyses showed that Fm. acidiphilum could and didmore »
