Carbon metabolism under conditions of regulated penicillin biosynthesis]

Carbon metabolism of P. chrysogenum under conditions of periodical addition of the nutrients was studied. It was found that a proper rate of the carbon source addition to the culture was of significant importance for intensive biosynthesis. The use of carbon for the energetic and constructive needs was not the same at different fermentation periods.     

Geobacillus uralicus,a New Species of Thermophilic Bacteria

The K^T ₂ strain of thermophilic spore-forming bacteria was isolated from a biofilm on the surface of a corroded pipeline in an extremely deep well (4680 m, 40–72°C) in the Urals. The cells are rod-shaped, motile, gram-variable. They grow on a complex medium with tryptone and yeast extract and on a synthetic medium with glucose and mineral salts without additional growth factors. The cells use a wide range of organic substances as carbon and energy sources. They exhibit a respiratory metabolism but are also capable of anaerobic growth on a nitrate-containing medium. Growth occurs within the 40–75°C temperature range (with an optimum of 65°C) and at pH 5–9. The minimum generation time (15 min) was observed at pH 7.5. Ammonium salts, nitrates, and arginine are used as nitrogen sources. The G+C content of the DNA is 54.5 mol %. From the morphological, physiological, and biochemical properties and the nucleotide sequence of the 16S rRNA gene, it was concluded that the isolate K^T ₂ represents a new species of the genus Geobacillus, Geobacillus uralicus.     

Study of hydrocarbon oxidizing microorganisms from deep groundwater of the Puchezh-Katunki impact structure

The presence of viable hydrocarbon-oxidizing microorganisms has been shown in the under-ground waters exposed by the Vorotilovskaya deep well (the Puchezh-Katunki astrobleme, 75 km north of Nizhny Novgorod, 1900- and 3200-m deep) using the method of chromatography-mass spectrometry of specific biomarkers of the microbial cell wall and the classical methods of bacteriology. Several microbial species have been isolated in pure culture and identified. Two bacillary species, Bacillus pumilus KTB-2 and Bacillus subtilis KTB-4, were maintained in pure cultures at reinoculations. The effects of mineralization and aeration of the medium on the growth characteristics of Bacillus pumilus KTB-2 in batch culture have been studied.     

Evolutionary Role of Iron in Metabolism of Prokaryotes and in Biogeochemical Processes

The paper reviews data summarizing points of view about the conceptual role of iron in the appearance and evolutionary formation of the Earth and its biosphere. Participation of iron and its compounds in the appearance and development of processes of anaero- and aerobiosis as fundamental blocks of metabolism is presented as a hierarchical scheme. Magnetically arrayed iron compounds, in which the element is both in the Fe(II) and in the Fe(III) state, are considered a connecting link between the hierarchical levels. It is shown that the energy transformation Fe(II) Fe(III) is an oxidation–reduction energy core of the most important metabolic iron complexes and of processes of biogenesis both at the cellular level and in biogeosystems.