Ammonia as an important nitrogen source for the photosynthetic growth of Rhodospirillum rubrum

The growth of Rhodospirillum rubrum strain K was poor in a glutamatemalate(G-3-X) medium under light-anaerobic conditions. The supplementof ammonia to the G-3-X medium remarkably stimulated the growth.No such stimulation by ammonia was observed under dark-aerobicconditions. The other bacterium, strain M, also showed a similartendency for the ammonia requirement, though its growth in theG-3-X medium was much more abundant as compared to that of strainK. Casamino acid was found to contain stimulating factors for growth.Among the amino acids, arginine and/or histidine were effective.The other factor in casamino acid was found to be ammonia. The crude extracts of strains K and M contained glutamic dehydrogenaseas judged by the formation of glutamate from -ketoglutarateand ammonia. The highly reduced state of the cell componentsunder lightanaerobic conditions, appears to limit the formationof ammonia from glutamate. Ammonia was a preferable nitrogensource to glutamate under the conditions employed. ¹Present address: Institute for Agricultural Research, TohokuUniversity, Sendai.²Present address: Sanitary Engineering Research Laboratory,Sanitary Engineering Department, Sumitomo Machinery Co. Ltd.,Hiratsuka.