Anaerobic syntrophic associations of fermentative bacteria and methanogenic archaea operate at the thermodynamic limits of life. The interspecies transfer of electrons from formate or hydrogen as a substrate for the methanogens is key. Contrary requirements of syntrophs and methanogens for growth-sustaining product and substrate concentrations keep the formate and hydrogen concentrations low an...

Export of Pink Lady apples from Australia has been significantly affected by infestations of adult eucalyptus weevils (Gonipterus platensis Marelli). These weevils cling tenaciously to the pedicel of apple fruit when selecting overwintering sites. As a result, apples infested with live G. platensis adults lead to rejection for export. Since the Montreal Protocol restricted use of methyl bromide...

The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has a special type of anaerobic metabolism that is quite unusual for eukaryotes. It has two oxygen-sensitive [Fe-Fe] hydrogenases (EC 1.12.7.2) that are coupled to photosynthesis and, in addition, a formate- and ethanol-producing fermentative metabolism, which was proposed to be initiated by pyruvate formate-lyase (Pfl; EC 2.3.1.54). Pfl enzy...

The FhlA protein belongs to the NtrC family of transcriptional regulators. It induces transcription from the -12/-24 promoters of the genes of the formate regulon by sigma54 RNA polymerase. FhlA is activated by binding of the ligand formate and does not require phosphorylation. A mutational analysis of the fhLA gene portion coding for the A and C domains was conducted with the aim of gaining in...

The nucleotide sequence has been determined for a twelve-gene operon of Escherichia coli designated the hyf operon (hyfABCDEFGHIR-focB). The hyf operon is located at 55.8-56.0 min and encodes a putative nine-subunit hydrogenase complex (hydrogenase four or Hyf), a potential formate- and sigma 54-dependent transcriptional activator, HyfR (related to FhlA), and a possible formate transporter, Foc...

Previous studies had demonstrated that Furacin (5-nitro-2-furaldehyde semicarbazone) inhibited the dismutation of pyruvate as well as its conversion to acetylmethylcarbinol by cell-free extracts of both avian (1) and bacterial (2) cells. It was therefore thought desirable to investigate the effect of this compound on the so called phosphoroclastic dissimilation of pyruvate to acetyl phosphate a...

Thermococcus onnurineus NA1, a sulfur-reducing hyperthermophilic archaeon, is capable of H(2)-producing growth, considered to be hydrogenogenic carboxydotrophy. Utilization of formate as a sole energy source has been well studied in T. onnurineus NA1. However, whether formate can be used as its carbon source remains unknown. To obtain a global view of the metabolic characteristics of H(2)-produ...

Irradiation of sterilized aqueous solution of ammonium formate and ammonia with UV light in the presence and or absence of certain inorganic sensitizers for 25 hrs. gave six ninhydrin positive products in appreciable amounts. Out of the six products observed fiver were characterized as lysine, serine, glutemic acid, n-amino butyric acid and leucine. The sensitizing effect of additives on ammoni...

GAR transformylase, which is responsible for the incorporation of formate carbon into what becomes position 8 of the purine ring, has been completely separated from 5-amino-4-imidazolecarboxamide ribotide transformylase (3). The latter enzyme is responsible for the incorporation of formate carbon into position 2 of the purine ring. The requirement for folic acid compounds has been demonstrated ...