有机酸对甲烷利用菌Methylosinus trichosporium IMV3011生物合成聚-3-羟基丁酸酯的影响

为了降低聚-3-羟基丁酸酯(PHB)的生产成本,利用甲烷和甲醇生长的甲烷利用菌是具有研究价值的一类菌种.文章针对如何克服甲烷利用菌IMV3011积累PHB过程中受到制约的因素进行了考察,以改善此菌种生产PHB的能力.研究发现,通过添加适量的三羧酸(TCA)循环的抑制剂——苹果酸可以达到很高PHB产量的目的.在细胞进行两阶段培养过程中,营养平衡和营养受限培养各进行24h,即加入不同浓度的苹果酸(前者控制在5.7×10-4g/L,后者控制在0.03g/L),可以使PHB的积累量达到55%(未添加只能达到40%).实验还通过对PHB合成中所需的酶的活性研究,从一定程度上证明了适当的抑制三羧酸循环对保持PHB合成的酶系的活性将更有利于PHB的合成.     

Solubility of methane in water and in a medium for the cultivation of methanotrophs bacteria

Solubility of methane in water and in an aqueous growth medium for the cultivation of methanotrophs bacteria was determined over the temperature range 293.15 to 323.15 K and at atmospheric pressure. The measurements were carried out in a Ben-Naim/Baer type apparatus with a precision of about ±0.3%. The experimental results were determined using accurate thermodynamic relations. The mole fractions of the dissolved gas at the gas partial pressure of 101.325 kPa, the Henry coefficients at the water vapour pressure and the Ostwald coefficients at infinite dilution were obtained. A comparison between the solubility of methane in water and those observed in fermentation medium over the temperature range of 298.15 to 308.15 K has shown that this gas is about ±2.3% more soluble in water.The temperature dependence of the mole fractions of methane was also determined using the Clarke-Glew-Weiss equation and the thermodynamic quantities, Gibbs energy, enthalpy and entropy changes, associated with the dissolution process were calculated.Furthermore, the experimental Henry coefficients for methane in water are compared with those calculated by the scaled particle theory. The estimated Henry coefficients are about ±4% lower than the experimental ones.     

Development of a solid phase extraction protocol coupled with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry to analyze central carbon metabolites in lake sediment microcosms

An ion exchange solid phase extraction (SPE) strategy is developed for application with liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for characterization of central carbon metabolites involved in methane assimilation and adjacent pathways in natural mixtures. For this purpose, short-time microcosm samples were obtained from lake sediment known to consume methane. Three SPE procedures were developed for the recovery of 51 targeted metabolites from five compound classes (amino acids, carboxylic acids, sugar phosphates, nucleotides and acyl-CoAs). The three SPE procedures employed were mixed mode (i) strong cation exchange, (ii) strong anion exchange and (iii) weak anion exchange. By spiking stable isotopic labeled standards, validation of the SPE procedures for the sediment extracts demonstrated that a 3 cm(3), 60 mg SPE sorbent bed provided effective loading capacity for targeted metabolites with an analytical variation of 16% RSD. We readily analyzed 32 of the targeted 51 metabolites using LC-MS/MS after sediment sample extraction, cleanup and pre-concentration. The remaining 19 targeted metabolites were either at, or below, the limit of detection. The current approach provides a good workflow for absolute quantification of intermediates in C(1)-carbon metabolism in natural microbial communities.