Occurrence and Ecological Significance of GTP in the Ocean and in Microbial Cells

A comparison between the ATP concentrations based on peak height light emission values (0 to 3 s) and integrated light flux determinations (15 to 75 s) for a variety of seawater samples revealed that the integrated method of light detection consistently yielded higher ATP concentrations, ranging from 1.38 to 2.35 times larger than the corresponding peak ATP values. A significant correlation (r = 0.923) was observed for a plot of ΔADP (i.e., integrated ATP - peak ATP) versus GTP + UTP, suggesting that the analytical interference on the ATP assay was the result of the presence of non-adenine nucleotide triphosphates. Size-fractionation studies revealed an enrichment of the non-adenine nucleotide triphosphates, relative to ATP, in the smallest size fraction analyzed (<10 μm). Investigations were conducted with 20 species of unicellular marine algae to determine their intracellular nucleotide concentrations, and these determinations were compared to the levels measured in lab cultures of the marine bacterium Serratia marinorubra. These results indicated that the intracellular GTP/ATP ratios in S. marinorubra increase in direct proportion to the rate of cell growth, and that the GTP/ATP ratios in bacteria are much greater than in growing algae, presumably due to the differences in rates of cellular biosynthesis. It is concluded that quantitative determinations of GTP/ATP ratios in environmental sample extracts may be useful for measuring microbial growth.