In a study, a dissimilatory sulfite reductase was purified from the anaerobic, taurine-degrading bacterium Bilophila wadsworthia RZATAU to apparent homogeneity. The enzyme is involved in energy ...conservation by reducing sulfite to sulfide.
Metazachlor (R-CH2-Cl), a chloroacetanilide herbicide, is converted in soil to products including the ethanesulfonate metabolite (R-CH2-SO3 -; BH 479-8). Nothing is known about the degradation of the ...ethanesulfonates of this class of herbicides. We used inocula derived from five sources for enrichment cultures to utilize R-CH2-SO3 - as a sole sulfur source for the growth of microorganisms. Each culture yielded bacteria that caused the disappearance of R-CH2-SO3 - and the formation of a product identified as the glycolate metabolite (R-CH2-OH; BH 479-1) by mass spectrometry. A pure culture, strain HL1, was isolated, and this bacterium quantitatively desulfonated R-CH2-SO3 -, the sulfur being recovered in cell protein. Recovery of the organic moiety was usually about 80%. A second ethanesulfonate (R‘-CH2-SO3 -) and two alkylsulfonates, but not taurine, were utilized by strain HL1 as sulfur sources.
Thiosulfate (S2O32-) is a natural product that is widely utilized in natural ecosystems as an electron sink or as an electron donor. However, the major biological source(s) of this thiosulfate is ...unknown. We present the first report that taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonate), the major mammalian solute, is subject to fermentation. This bacterial fermentation was found to be catalyzed by a new isolate, strain GKNTAU, a strictly anaerobic, gram-positive, motile rod that formed subterminal spores. Thiosulfate was a quantitative fermentation product. The other fermentation products were ammonia and acetate, and all could be formed by cell-free extracts.
We isolated a strictly anaerobic bacterium, strain GRZCYSA, from a sludge digestor for its ability to ferment cysteate (2-amino-3-sulfopropionate). The organism also fermented the organosulfonates ...isethionate (2-hydroxyethanesulfonate) and aminomethanesulfonate, but taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonate) was not a substrate. Strain GRZCYSA, a gram-negative, oxidase-negative and catalase-positive vibrio that could reduce sulfate and contained desulfoviridin, was tentatively identified as Desulfovibrio sp. Utilization of cysteate as a substrate for fermentative growth led to the formation of four products identified as acetate, ammonia, and equimolar amounts of sulfide and sulfate. The fermentation was in balance. Some reactions involved in this novel process were detected in cell-free extracts in which ammonia and acetate were formed from cysteate.
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