Three halotolerant bacterial strains; Rhodobacter sphaeroides ES16 (the wild type) and the two mutant strains of R. sphaeroides ES16, namely N20 and U7, were cultivated in glutamate-malate (GM) medium and screened for production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). The mutant strains N20 and U7 were found to accumulate PHB (53.9 and 42.0% of DCW, respectively) 3.6 and 2.8 times higher than the wild ty...

The taxis response of Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1 and 2.4.3, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, and Agrobacterium tumefaciens to nitrate and nitrite was evaluated by observing the macroscopic behavior of cells suspended in soft agar and incubated under various conditions. R. sphaeroides 2.4.3, which is capable of both nitrate and nitrite reduction, showed a taxis response to both nitrate and nitrite...

A nonspecific density labeling technique has been employed to monitor the synthesis of intracytoplasmic membrane in synchronously dividing populations of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides. The intracytoplasmic membranes of cells synchronized in D2O-based medium were found to undergo discontinuous decreases in specific density during synchronous cell growth following transfer to H2O-based medium. The...

The photosynthetic apparatus of purple bacteria is contained within organelles called chromatophores, which form as extensions of the cytoplasmic membrane. The shape of these chromatophores can be spherical (as in Rhodobacter sphaeroides), lamellar (as in Rhodopseudomonas acidophila and Phaeospirillum molischianum), or tubular (as in certain Rb. sphaeroides mutants). Chromatophore shape is thou...

The gene for the FeS protein of the Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides b/c1 complex was identified by means of cross-hybridization with a segment of the gene encoding the corresponding FeS protein of Neurospora crassa. Plasmids (pRSF1-14) containing the cross-hybridizing region, covering in total 13.5 kb of chromosomal DNA, were expressed in vitro in a homologous system. One RSF plasmid directed the ...

Cellulose is a major component of plant biomass and could be applied in the production of biofuels, especially bioethanol. An alternative approach is production of a clean fuel - hydrogen from cellulosic biomass. In this paper an innovatory model of cellulosic waste degradation has been proposed to verify the possibility of utilization of cellulose derivatives by purple non-sulfur bacteria. The...

Human neutrophil peptides (HNPs) possess high antimicrobial activities against a broad spectrum of microorganisms. Rhodobacter sphaeroides is the best-characterized photosynthetic bacterium and exhibits potential as a novel expression system. Up to date, no literature has been reported regarding expression of HNP3 in Rb. sphaeroides. In the present study, the HNP3 gene fragment was amplified by...

Chemotaxis is one of the best-characterized signalling systems in biology. It is the mechanism by which bacteria move towards optimal environments and is implicated in biofilm formation, pathogenesis and symbiosis. The properties of the bacterial chemosensory response have been described in detail for the single chemosensory pathway of Escherichia coli. We have characterized the properties of t...