ARS | Publication request: Nitrous Oxide Respiration in Non-Denitrifying Anaeromyxobacter dehalogenans

Submitted to: American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: February 16, 2007
Publication Date: May 21, 2007
Citation: Wu, Q., Thomas, S.H., Wagner, R.D., Sanford, R.A., Chee Sanford, J.C., Loeffler, F.E. 2007. Nitrous Oxide Respiration in Non-Denitrifying Anaeromyxobacter dehalogenans. Abstracts of the 107th American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting, May 21-25, 2007, Toronto, Canada. No. N-005.

Technical Abstract: Members of the genus Anaeromyxobacter are versatile, facultative microaerophilic myxobacteria isolated from soils, aquifers and freshwater sediments. Anaeromyxobacter spp. grow with nitrate as electron acceptor, which is reduced via nitrite to ammonia. Interestingly, the analysis of the Anaeromyxobacter dehalogenans strain 2CP-C genome revealed the presence of a complete nosZ gene cluster, and physiological studies confirmed that this organism reduces nitrous oxide to dinitrogen gas. With acetate as electron donor, 4.06 (± 1.22) x 10e8 cells were produced per micromol of nitrous oxide reduced. Other electron donors for nitrous oxide reduction included succinate, lactate, formate, and hydrogen gas. Nitrate or ferric iron did not inhibit N2 formation and were reduced concomitantly with nitrous oxide. PCR with primer pairs targeting the nosZ of Anaeromyxobacter dehalogenans strain 2CP-C yielded the expected nosZ amplicons with template DNA from all other Anaeromyxobacter strains tested, suggesting that nitrous oxide respiration is a common trait of this group. A 16S rRNA gene-based survey of distinct agroecological regions in the North American cornbelt demonstrated widespread distribution of Anaeromyxobacter spp. suggesting that these non-dentrifying myxobacteria affect nitrous oxide flux from agricultural soils.