The influence of the metabolic state and of the medium on carbon dioxide fixation by Serratia marcescens

Effects of co-loading of polyethylene microplastics and ciprofloxacin on the antibiotic degradation efficiency and microbial community structure in soil

Microplastics (MPs) have become a global environmental concern while soil plastic pollution has been largely overlooked. In view of the severe antibiotic contamination in arable soils owing to land application of sewage sludge and animal manure, the invasion of MPs along with antibiotics may pose an unpredictable threat to soil microbial communities and ecological health. In this work, polyethylene MPs and ciprofloxacin (CIP) were applied to a soil microcosm to investigate the CIP degradation behavior and their combined effects on soil microbial communities. Compared with that of the individual amendment of CIP, the co-amendment of CIP and MPs reduced the CIP degradation efficiency during the 35 d cultivation period. In addition, the high-throughput sequencing results illustrated that the combined loading of MPs and CIP in soil significantly decreased the microbial diversity compared with that of individual contamination. As for the community structure, the microbial compositions at the phylum level were consistent among all treatments, and the most dominant phyla were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Chloroflexi. At the genus level, only one genus, namely Arthrobacter, was remarkably changed in the CIP-amended soil compared with that in the blank control, but four genera were significantly altered in the MPs-CIP co-amended soil. Serratia and Achromobacter were abundant in the combined polluted soil, which might have been involved in accelerated depletion of soil total nitrogen based on redundancy analysis. These findings may contribute to the understanding of bacterial responses to the combined pollution of MPs and antibiotics in soil ecosystems.

QUANTITATIVE STUDIES OF THE EFFECT OF ORGANIC SUBSTRATES AND 2,4-DINITROPHENOL ON HETEROTROPHIC CARBON DIOXIDE FIXATION IN HYDROGENOMONAS FACILIS

McFadden, Bruce A. (Washington State University, Pullman), and H. Robert Homann. Quantitative studies of the effect of organic substrates and 2,4-dinitrophenol on heterotrophic carbon dioxide fixation in Hydrogenomonas facilis. J. Bacteriol. 86:971-977. 1963.-Whole cells of Hydrogenomonas facilis under heterotrophic conditions fixed levels of C(14)O(2) which depended upon the nature of the carbon source being oxidized. It was established that oxidative rates varied as a function of p(CO2). Therefore, all studies were conducted in the presence of 1.5 mole% CO(2) in the gas phase. With glucose-grown cells supplied with glucose as substrate, the heterotrophic fixation was curtailed 98% by the addition of 8.3 x 10(-4)m 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP). A coupling between reductive fixation of CO(2) and heterotrophic oxidation of substrate is consistent with the observed effect of DNP. The efficiency of coupling of fixation with oxidation was studied for acetate, d-glucose, l-glutamate, d,l-lactate, d-ribose, and succinate as substrates. Kinetic studies showed that the efficiency of coupling (expressed as disintegrations per minute of C(14) per microliter of O(2)) was initially time-variable for all substrates; however, it approached a constant value after 30 to 45 min for acetate, glutamate, lactate, and succinate. The initial variation of the ratio with time was due primarily to C(14)O(2) uptake, which was nonlinear with time. Control studies in the absence of exogenous substrate indicated that CO(2) fixation may also be linked to oxidation of endogenous stores accumulated during heterotrophic growth. d-Ribose appears to be the most promising substrate for short-term fixation studies owing to the rapid incorporation of C(14) and the unusually low endogenous fixation rate by cells grown on ribose. Calculations reveal that, after isotopic equilibrium has occurred, the amount of CO(2) utilized during glucose oxidation is almost 50% of O(2) uptake during the same interval. Even during succinate oxidation, which was shown to be coupled much less effectively with CO(2) fixation, the CO(2) utilized during the same interval is 8% of O(2) uptake.