The Biochemistry of the Nitrifying Organisms 4. THE RESPIRATION AND INTERMEDIARY METABOLISM OF NITROSOMONAS BY T. HOFMAN

Meyerhof (1917) found that the oxygen uptake of suspensions of the organism provided with ammonia agreed well with nitrite production in the suspensions. Bomecke (1939) established that the organisms had an oxygen uptake in the absence of ammonia; however, this endogenous respiration is very small and, although ofconsiderable biochemical significance, is quantitatively negligible in ordinary respirometric studies in the presence of appreciable quantities of ammonia. The respiration of Nitrosomonas suspensions thus offers a very simple means of studying the metabolism of the organism since there is only one normal substrate and one end product; nevertheless, the studies of Meyerhof (1917) and B6mecke (1939, 1951) represent the bulk of the work that has been published in this field. MATERIALS AND METHODS