Regulation of hydrogenase in Rhizobium japonicum.

Factors that regulate the expression of an H2 uptake system in free-living cultures of Rhizobium japonicum have been investigated. Rapid rates of H2 uptake by R. japonicum were obtained by incubation of cell suspensions in a Mg-phosphate buffer under a gas phase of 86.7% N2, 8.3% H2, 4.2% CO2, and 0.8% O2. Cultures incubated under conditions comparable with those above, with the exception that Ar replaced H2, showed no hydrogenase activity. When H2 was removed after initiation of hydrogenase derepression, further increase in hydrogenase activity ceased. Nitrogenase activity was not essential for expression of hydrogenase activity. All usable carbon substrates tested repressed hydrogenase formation, but none of them inhibited hydrogenase activity. No effect on hydrogenase formation was observed from the addition of KNO3 or NH4Cl at 10 mM. Oxygen repressed hydrogenase formation, but did not inhibit activity of the enzyme in whole cells. The addition of rifampin or chloramphenicol to derepressed cultures resulted in inhibition of enzyme formation similar to that observed by O2 repression. The removal of CO2 during derepression caused a decrease in the rate of hydrogenase formation. No direct effect of CO2 on hydrogenase activity was observed.     

Hydrogenases of phototrophic microorganisms

This review surveys recent work done in the laboratory of the author and related laboratories on the properties and possible practical applications of hydrogenases of phototrophic microorganisms. Homogeneous hydrogenase preparations were obtained from purple non-sulfur (Rhodospirillum rubrum S1, Rhodobacter capsulatus B10) and purple sulfur (Chromatium vinosum D, Thiocapsa roseopersicina BBS) bacteria, and from the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobium limicola forma thiosulfatophilum L; highly purified hydrogenase samples were prepared from the cyanobacterium Anabaena cylindrica and from the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardii. It was shown that hydrogenases of R. capsulatus and T. roseopersicina contain Ni and Fe-S cluster. The cytochromes of the c or b type serve as native electron acceptors for the hydrogenases of the purple bacteria and cyanobacteria; rubredoxin or cytochrome c for the hydrogenase of the green sulfur bacterium; and ferredoxin for Ch. reinhardii hydrogenase. The hydrogenase of T. roseopersicina BBS reversibly activates H2 at Eh less than -290 mV (pH 7), whereas those from R. capsulatus and from C. limicola f. thiosulfatophilum exhibit their maximum activity at Eh greater than -300 mV and are thus favourable only for the H2 uptake. Hydrogenase synthesis in different phototrophs depends on pO2, H2 concentrations and organic substrates. Organic compounds, which serve as electron donors and carbon sources, repress hydrogenase synthesis in R. rubrum, R. capsulatus and in Ectothiorhodospira shaposhnikovii when present at high concentrations. The synthesis of T. roseopersicina hydrogenase is constitutive. H2 notably stimulates hydrogenase activity in R. capsulatus. The synthesis of hydrogenase in R. sphaeroides 2R occurs only in the presence of H2 and does not depend on the presence of organic compounds in the medium.     

Regulation of hydrogenase activity in enterobacteria.

Proteus vulgaris, Escherichia coli, and Citrobacter freundii cells were devoid of hydrogenase activity when grown on complex medium or minimal medium plus glucose in the presence of saturating levels of dissolved oxygen. Anaerobically grown cells had appreciable hydrogenase activity. Cells grown anaerobically in the presence of CO (an inhibitor of hydrogenase) or nitrate (an electron acceptor) lacked hydrogenase activity. To make hydrogenase essential for anaerobic growth, cells were grown on fumarate, a nonfermentable carbon source. P. vulgaris and C. freundii evolved H2 gas under these conditions, and the hydrogenase-specific activity was 8 to 10 times greater than that in cells grown on glucose. Cell growth was inhibited by CO, and the cells grew but lacked hydrogenase activity when grown in the presence of nitrate. E. coli grew on fumarate plus H2, and the specific activity was five times greater than that in cells grown on glucose. Thus, hydrogenase activity is inducible and is expressed maximally when the enzyme is essential for cellular growth. Under conditions of growth where the enzyme would not be catalytically active, cells contain little active hydrogenase. Under anaerobic conditions where the enzyme is not essential for growth, the level of hydrogenase activity is intermediate.     

Selenium increases hydrogenase expression in autotrophically cultured Bradyrhizobium japonicum and is a constituent of the purified enzyme.

We have investigated the effect of added selenite on autotrophic growth and the time course of hydrogen oxidation derepression in Bradyrhizobium japonicum 122DES cultured in a medium purified to remove selenium compounds. In addition, hydrogenase was purified to near homogeneity and examined for the specific incorporation of Se into the enzyme. The addition of Se at 0.1 microM significantly increased total cell protein and hydrogenase specific activity of harvested cells. Also, the addition of SeO3(2-) enhanced the time course of hydrogenase derepression by 133%, whereas VO3, AsO2(2-), SO2(2-), and TeO3(2-) failed to substantially affect hydrogenase derepression. During the final chromatographic purification of hydrogenase, a striking coincidence in peaks of protein content, Se radioactivity, and hydrogenase activity of fractions was obtained. The total Se content expressed per milligram of protein increased manyfold during the purification procedure. The mean Se content of the purified hydrogenase was 0.56 +/- 0.13 mol of Se per mol of enzyme. These results indicate that Se is an important element in the H2 metabolism of B. japonicum and that hydrogenase from B. japonicum is a seleno protein.     

The activities of hydrogenase and enoate reductase in two Clostridium species,their interrelationship and dependence on growth conditions

The enzyme activities of Clostridium La 1 and Clostridium kluyveri involved in the stereospecific hydrogenation of ,-unsaturated carbonyl compounds with hydrogen gas were measured. In C. La 1 the specific activities of hydrogenase and enoate reductase depended heavily on the growth phase and the composition of the medium. During growth in batch cultures on 70 mM crotonate the specific activity of hydrogenase increased and then dropped to about 10% of its maximum value, whereas the activity of enoate reductase reached its maximum in cells of the stationary phase. Under certain conditions during growth the activity ratio hydrogenase: enoate reductase changed from 120 to 1. Thus, the rate limiting enzyme for the hydrogenation can be either the hydrogenase or the enoate reductase, depending on the growth conditions of the cells.The specific activities of ferredoxin-NAD reductase and butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase increased 3-4-fold during growth on crotonate. By turbidostatic experiments it was shown that at constant input of high crotonate concentrations (200 mM) the enoate reductase activity was almost completely suppressed; it increased steadily with decreasing crotonate down to an input concentration of 35 mM.Glucose as carbon source led to high hydrogenase and negligible enoate reductase activities. The latter could be induced by changing the carbon source of the medium from glucose to crotonate. Tetracycline inhibited the formation of enoate reductase.A series of other carbon sources was tested. They can be divided into ones which result in high hydrogenase and rather low enoate reductase activities and others which cause the reverse effect.When the Fe²⁺ concentration in crotonate medium was growth limiting, cells with relatively high hydrogenase activity and very low enoate reductase activity in the stationary phase were obtained. At Fe²⁺ concentrations above 3·10^-7 M enoate reductase increased and hydrogenase activity reached its minimum. The ratio of activities changes by a factor of about 200. In a similar way the dependence of enzyme activities on the concentration of sulfate was studied.In batch cultures of Clostridium kluyveri a similar opposite time course of enoate reductase and hydrogenase was found.The possible physiological significance of this behavior is discussed.Non Standard Abbreviations O.D.₅₇₈ Optical density at 578 nm Dedicated to Professor Dr. O. Kandler on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Enzyme activity of the formate hydrogenlyase complex in Citrobacter freundii

Citrobacter freundii 62 can grow in the absence of oxygen in media containing glucose, peptone, fumarate or malate. When the medium contained fumarate or malate, the culture could grow under anaerobic conditions only in the presence of molecular hydrogen, formate or nitrate. The highest activity of formatehydrogenlyase and hydrogenase was found when C. freundii grew in a medium with glucose and formate. The activity was lower in media with other organic substrates, particularly, in the absence of formate or H2. The activity of hydrogenase was very low in cells grown under aerobic conditions or in the presence of nitrates while the activity of formatehydrogenlyase was not found at all for all practical purposes. The activity of formate dehydrogenase assessed in the presence of methylene blue was rather high irrespective of the conditions under which the culture was grown. However, when the activity of formate dehydrogenase was determined in the presence of benzyl viologen, it was high only in cells grown in the medium with glucose and formate.     

Studies on the Induction of Reversible Hydrogenase from Cyanobacterium Anabaena variabilis and its Properties

The reversible hydrogenase in vegetative cells of A. variabilis cultured on NH4+ or N-free medium was induced by sparging with N2 for 24 hours under light. Both anaerobic condition and illumination appear to be necessary for the induction of hydrogenase in this algae. The properties of the hydrogenase in cell-free extract obtained from the cells grown on two nitrogen sources are similar: (1) Both the enzymes are able to evolve H2 in the presence of reduced methyl viotogen as electron donor, and to uptake H2 in the presence of benzyl viologen as electron acceptor. (2) The enzymes posses the thermal stability and are stable to O2. (3) The optimum pH required for H2 evolution activity of the enzymes is 7.0–7 5. (4) The Km of the enzymes obtained from NH4+ grown cells and N-free grown cells is 300 mmol/l and 295 mmol/l, respectively. So the high Km measured here suggests that the enzymes in both cases function physiologically as H2 evolution. (5) The activities of both enzymes are inhibited by CO but are not affected by C2H2. The induced H2 evolution activity of the reversible hydrogenase in cells grown on NH4+ reached 1530 nmol H2/mg dry wt, h, which was 3 to 5 times higher than from cells grown on N-free medium. Our experiment results indicate that the appearance of heterocysts of A. variabilis cultured on N-free medium affects the synthesis of reversible hydrogenase and the regulation of its activity.     

The use of nickel to probe the role of hydrogen metabolism in cyanobacterial nitrogen fixation

The hydrogenase activities of the heterocystous cyanobacteria Anabaena cylindrica and Mastigocladus laminosus are nickel dependent, based on their inability to consume hydrogen with various electron acceptors or produce hydrogen with dithionite-reduced methyl viologen, after growth in nickel-depleted medium. Upon addition of nickel ions to nickel-deficient cultures of A. cylindrica, the hydrogenase activity recovered in a manner which was protein synthesis-dependent, the recovery being inhibited by chloramphenicol. We have used the nickel dependence of the hydrogenase as a probe of the possible roles of H2 consumption in enhancing nitrogen fixation, and particularly for protecting nitrogenase against oxygen inhibition. Although at the usual growth temperatures (25 degrees for A. cylindrica and 40 degrees for M. laminosus), the cells consume H2 vigorously in an oxyhydrogen reaction after growth in the presence of nickel ions, we have not found that the reaction confers any significant additional protection of nitrogenase, either at aerobic pO2 (for both organisms) or at elevated pO2 (for A. cylindrica). However, at elevated temperatures (e.g., 40 degrees for A. cylindrica and 48 degrees for M. laminosus) a definite protective effect was observed. At these temperatures both organisms rapidly lost acetylene reduction activity under aerobic conditions. When hydrogen gas (10%) was present, the cells retained approximately 50% of the nitrogenase activity observed under anaerobic conditions (argon gas phase). No such protection by hydrogen gas was observed with nickel-deficient cells. Studies with cell-free extracts of A. cylindrica showed that the predominant effect of temperature was not due to thermal inactivation of nitrogenase.     

Physiological conditions for nitrogen fixation in a unicellular marine cyanobacterium, Synechococcus sp. strain SF1.

A marine, unicellular, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium was isolated from the blades of a brown alga, Sargassum fluitans. This unicellular cyanobacterium, identified as Synechococcus sp. strain SF1, is capable of photoautotrophic growth with bicarbonate as the sole carbon source and dinitrogen as the sole nitrogen source. Among the organic carbon compounds tested, glucose and sucrose supported growth. Of the nitrogen compounds tested, with bicarbonate serving as the carbon source, both ammonia and nitrate produced the highest growth rates. Most amino acids failed to support growth when present as sole sources of nitrogen. Nitrogenase activity in Synechococcus sp. strain SF1 was induced after depletion of ammonia from the medium. This activity required the photosynthetic utilization of bicarbonate, but pyruvate and hydrogen gas were also effective sources of reductant for nitrogenase activity. Glucose, fructose, and sucrose also supported nitrogenase activity but to a lesser extent. Optimum light intensity for nitrogenase activity was found to be 70 microE/m2 per s, while the optimum oxygen concentration in the gas phase for nitrogenase activity was about 1%. A hydrogenase activity was coinduced with nitrogenase activity. It is proposed that this light- and oxygen-insensitive hydrogenase functions in recycling the hydrogen produced by nitrogenase under microaerobic conditions.     

浑球红假单胞菌及其谷氨酸合成酶突变株氢酶活性和合成

浑球红假单胞菌野生型菌株的氢酶表达被有机碳、氮底物所抑制。在光照和黑暗时,氧浓度变化对氢酶的作用不同,但高氧浓度都阻遏氢酶的表达。微量Ni~(2+)能专一性地促进氢酶活性,固氮酶的产氢也可以调节氢酶的表达水平。该野生菌株的GOGAT突变株缺乏固氮酶和氢酶活性,在加入谷氨酰胺合成酶抑制剂MSX后,固氮酶和氢酶以相关联的方式合成出来,固氮酶产生的氢看来诱导了氢酶的合成。然而在固氮酶不表达的情况下,外源氢也可诱导氢酶的合成。     

Redox properties and active center of phototrophic bacteria hydrogenases

It is shown that the activity of phototrophic bacteria hydrogenases depends on the redox potential (Eh) of the medium. Hydrogenase from the purple sulfur bacterium Thiocapsa roseopersicina strain BBS reversibly activates H2 at Eh less than -290 mV (pH 7.0). When Eh is increased from -290 to -170 mV, the enzyme is converted into an inactive form which is accompanied by one-electron oxidation of its Fe-S cluster. In contrast, the hydrogenases of the purple nonsulfur bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus B10 and the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobium limicola forma thiosulfatophilum exhibit maximum activity at Eh greater than -300 mV, favourable only for H2 uptake. When Eh decreases the activities of these enzymes drop dramatically; this accounts for their unidirectional effect directed mainly towards H2 uptake. Such dependence on Eh of activity of hydrogenases from these bacteria correlates with their physiological function in the metabolism of phototrophic bacteria, i.e. with the catalysis of the H2 uptake reaction. Hydrogenases from purple bacteria contain nickel and a single Fe-S cluster. Metal chelators do not affect the activity of these enzymes, which indicates that iron and nickel are tightly bound to the apoprotein. Sulfhydryl compounds irreversibly inactivate T. roseopersicina hydrogenase by 30-40% in the presence of sulfide. Acetylene and carbon monoxide are reversible inhibitors of the enzyme. EPR and inhibitory analysis indicate a direct interaction of H2 with the nickel ion in the active center of the T. roseopersicina hydrogenase.     

Microbial transformation of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and other nitroaromatic compounds.

A variety of nitroaromatic compounds, including 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), were reduced by hydrogen in the presence of enzyme preparations from Veillonella alkalescens. Consistent with the proposed reduction pathway, R-NO2 H2 leads to R-NO H2 leads to R-NHOH H2 leads to R-NH2, 3 mol of H2 was utilized per mol of nitro group. The rates of reduction of 40 mono-, di-, and trinitroaromatic compounds by V. alkalescens extract were determined. The reactivity of the nitro groups depended on other substituents and on the position of the nitro groups relative to these substituents. In the case of the nitrotoluenes, the para-nitro group was the most readily reduced, the 4-nitro position of 2,4-dinitrotulene being reduced first. The pattern of reduction of TNT (disappearance of TNT and reduction products formed) depended on the type of preparation (cell-free extract, resting cells, or growing culture), on the species, and on the atmosphere (air or H2). The "nitro-reductase" activity of V. alkalescens extracts was associated with protein fractions, one having some ferredoxin-like properties and the other possessing hydrogenase activity. Efforts to eliminate hydrogenase from the reaction have thus far been unsuccessful. The question of whether ferredoxin acts as a nonspecific reductase for nitroaromatic compounds remains unresolved.     

Hydrogen evolution by strictly aerobic hydrogen bacteria under anaerobic conditions.

When strains and mutants of the strictly aerobic hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium Alcaligenes eutrophus are grown heterotrophically on gluconate or fructose and are subsequently exposed to anaerobic conditions in the presence of the organic substrates, molecular hydrogen is evolved. Hydrogen evolution started immediately after the suspension was flushed with nitrogen, reached maximum rates of 70 to 100 mumol of H2 per h per g of protein, and continued with slowly decreasing rates for at least 18 h. The addition of oxygen to an H2-evolving culture, as well as the addition of nitrate to cells (which had formed the dissimilatory nitrate reductase system during the preceding growth), caused immediate cessation of hydrogen evolution. Formate is not the source of H2 evolution. The rates of H2 evolution with formate as the substrate were lower than those with gluconate. The formate hydrogenlyase system was not detectable in intact cells or crude cell extracts. Rather the cytoplasmic, NAD-reducing hydrogenase is involved by catalyzing the release of excessive reducing equivalents under anaerobic conditions in the absence of suitable electron acceptors. This conclusion is based on the following experimental results. H2 is formed only by cells which had synthesized the hydrogenases during growth. Mutants lacking the membrane-bound hydrogenase were still able to evolve H2. Mutants lacking the NAD-reducing or both hydrogenases were unable to evolve H2.     

Increased photoproduction of hydrogen by non-autotrophic mutants of Rhodopseudomonas capsulata.

Non-autotrophic ( Aut -) mutants of Rhodopseudomonas capsulata B10 were tested for their efficiency of nitrogenase-mediated H2 production. Three of these mutants ( IR3 , IR4 and IR5 ) showed an increase stoichiometry of H2 production, mediated by nitrogenase, from certain organic substrates. For example, in a medium containing 7 mM-L-glutamate as nitrogen source, strain IR4 produced 10-20% more H2 than did the wild type with DL-lactate or L-malate as major carbon source, 20-50% more H2 with DL-malate, and up to 70% more with D-malate. Strain IR4 was deficient in 'uptake' hydrogenase activity as measured by H2-dependent reduction of Methylene Blue or Benzyl Viologen. However, this observation did not explain the increased efficiency of H2 production, since H2 uptake (H2 recycling) was undetectable in cells of the wild type. Instead, increased H2 production by the mutant appeared to be due to an improved conversion of organic substrates to H2 and CO2, presumably due to an altered carbon metabolism. The metabolism of D-malate by different strains was studied. An NAD+-dependent D-malic enzyme was synthesized constitutively by the wild type, and showed a Km for D-malate of 3 mM. The activity of this enzyme was approx. 50% higher in strain IR4 than in the wild type, and the mutant also grew twice as fast as the wild type with D-malate as sole carbon source.     

Proton efflux coupled to dark H2 oxidation in whole cells of a marine sulfur photosynthetic bacterium (Chromatium sp. strain Miami PBS1071).

Whole cells of photoanaerobically grown Chromatium sp. strain Miami PBS1071, a marine sulfur purple bacterium, oxidized H2 in the dark through the oxyhydrogen reaction at rates of up to 59 nmol of H2 per mg (dry weight) per min. H2 oxidation was routinely measured in H2 pulse experiments with air-equilibrated cells. The reaction was accompanied by a reversible H+ efflux from the cells, suggesting an outward H+ translocation reaction coupled to H2 oxidation. The H+/e- ratio, calculated from simultaneous measurements of H2, O2, and H+ changes in the medium, varied with the cultures from 0.7 to 1.2. The ratio increased considerably when the backflow of H+ was taken into account. Anaerobic H2 uptake with 2,5-dimethyl-p-benzoguinone as an oxidant also showed a weak H+-translocating activity. No H+-translocating activity was detected with methylene blue as an oxidant. Carbonylcyanide 3-chlorophenylhydrazone (1 microM) stimulated H2 oxidation and abolished the associated H+ changes when H2 oxidation was observed in O2 pulse experiments with H2-Ar-equilibrated cells. However, the uncoupler inhibited both H2 oxidation and H+ changes when measurements were made in H2 pulse experiments with air-equilibrated cells. It is suggested that in this bacterium the susceptibility of hydrogenase to reversible O2 inactivation in situ is enhanced by the presence of uncoupling agents.     

The extremely thermophilic eubacterium, Thermotoga maritima, contains a novel iron-hydrogenase whose cellular activity is dependent upon tungsten.

Thermotoga maritima is the most thermophilic eubacterium currently known and grows up to 90 degrees C by a fermentative metabolism in which H2, CO2, and organic acids are end products. It was shown that the production of H2 is catalyzed by a single hydrogenase located in the cytoplasm. The addition of tungsten to the growth medium was found to increase both the cellular concentration of the hydrogenase and its in vitro catalytic activity by up to 10-fold, but the purified enzyme did not contain tungsten. It is a homotetramer of Mr 280,000 and contains approximately 20 atoms of Fe and 18 atoms of acid-labile sulfide/monomer. Other transition metals, including nickel (and also selenium), were present in only trace amounts (less than 0.1 atoms/monomer). The hydrogenase was unstable at both 4 and 23 degrees C, even under anaerobic conditions, but no activity was lost in anaerobic buffer containing glycerol and dithiothreitol. Under these conditions the enzyme was also quite thermostable (t50% approximately 1 h at 90 degrees C) but extremely sensitive to irreversible inactivation by O2 (t50% approximately 10 s in air). The optimum pH ranges for H2 evolution and H2 oxidation were 8.6-9.5 and greater than or equal to 10.4, respectively, and the optimum temperature for catalytic activity was above 95 degrees C. In contrast to mesophilic Fe hydrogenases, the T. maritima enzyme had very low H2 evolution activity, did not use T. maritima ferredoxin as an electron donor for H2 evolution, was inhibited by acetylene but not by nitrite, and exhibited EPR signals typical of [2Fe-2S]1+ clusters. Moreover, the oxidized enzyme did not exhibit the rhombic EPR signal that is characteristic of the catalytic iron-sulfur cluster of mesophilic Fe hydrogenases. These data suggest that T. maritima hydrogenase has a different FeS site and/or mechanism for catalyzing H2 production. The potential role of tungsten in regulating the activity of this enzyme is discussed.     

Enhanced co-production of hydrogen and poly-(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate by recombinant PHB producing E. coli over-expressing hydrogenase 3 and acetyl-CoA synthetase

Recombinant Escherichia coli was constructed for co-production of hydrogen and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) due to its rapid growth and convenience of genetic manipulation. In particular, anaerobic metabolic pathways dedicated to co-production of hydrogen and PHB were established due to the advantages of directing fluxes away from toxic compounds such as formate and acetate to useful products. Here, recombinant E. coli expressing hydrogenase 3 and/or acetyl-CoA synthetase showed improved PHB and hydrogen production when grown with or without acetate as a carbon source. When hydrogenase 3 was over-expressed, hydrogen yield was increased from 14 to 153mmol H(2)/mol glucose in a mineral salt (MS) medium with glucose as carbon source, accompanied by an increased PHB yield from 0.55 to 5.34mg PHB/g glucose in MS medium with glucose and acetate as carbon source.     

Hydrogen-mediated enhancement of hydrogenase expression in Azotobacter vinelandii.

Azotobacter vinelandii cultures express more H2 uptake hydrogenase activity when fixing N2 than when provided with fixed N. Hydrogen, a product of the nitrogenase reaction, is at least partly responsible for this increase. The addition of H2 to NH4+-grown wild-type cultures caused increased whole-cell H2 uptake activity, methylene blue-dependent H2 uptake activity of membranes, and accumulation of hydrogenase protein (large subunit as detected immunologically) in membranes. Both rifampin and chloramphenicol inhibited the H2-mediated enhancement of hydrogenase synthesis. Nif- A. vinelandii mutants with deletions or insertions in the nif genes responded to added H2 by increasing the amount of both whole-cell and membrane-bound hydrogenase activities. Nif- mutant strain CA11 contained fourfold more hydrogenase protein when incubated in N-free medium with H2 than when incubated in the same medium containing Ar. N2-fixing wild-type cultures that produce H2 did not increase hydrogenase protein levels in response to added H2.     

Regulation by molecular oxygen and organic substrates of hydrogenase synthesis in Alcaligenes eutrophus.

Chemoautotrophic growth of Alcaligenes eutrophus 17707 is inhibited by 20% oxygen in the gas phase. Lowering the oxygen concentration to 4% results in chloramphenicol-sensitive derepression of soluble and membrane-bound hydrogenase activity (and of soluble hydrogenase antigen), showing that oxygen inhibition is due at least in part to repression of hydrogenase synthesis. Mutations resulting in derepression of hydrogenase activity (and antigen) under 25% oxygen (Ose-) mobilized with a self-transmissable plasmid which is already known to carry genes necessary for hydrogenase expression. Plasmid-borne mutations resulting in loss of soluble hydrogenase activity have no effect on the Ose phenotype, but chromosomal mutations resulting in reduction or loss of both hydrogenase activities cannot be made Ose-. The Ose- mutation does not alter the thermostability of either hydrogenase, and soluble hydrogenase in the mutant reacts with complete identity with that of the wild type, indicating that the Ose- phenotype does not result from structural alterations in either enzyme. Ose- mutants are also relieved of normal hydrogenase repression by organic substrates, which aggravates hydrogenase-mediated inhibition of heterotrophic growth by hydrogen. Regulation of hydrogenase in Ose- strains of A. eutrophus 17707 is nearly identical to that of wild-type A. eutrophus strains H1 and H16.