Nitrosomonas europaea
Stacy Heather
Have you ever encountered a bacterium that does not use photosynthesis for its energy, but rather uses the energy produced by “burning” ammonia with oxygen for its energy?  While not using photosynthesis for energy is not unique, “burning” ammonia with oxygen is.  Both are characteristics of Nitrosomonas europaea.  This gram negative chemolithotroph oxidizes ammonia to nitrite and lives in several places such as soil, sewage, freshwater, the wall s of buildings and on the surface of monuments especially in polluted areas where air contains high levels of nitrogen compounds.

This microbe prefers an optimum pH of 6.0-9.0, fairly neutral conditions, has an aerobic metabolism and prefers a temperature range of 20-30 degrees centigrade.  Most are motile with flagella located in the polar regions although some species are nonmotile.  A selective medium is needed for isolation.  This medium should be completely inorganic and include ammonia as an electron donor, bicarbonate as the sole carbon source, and an  extensively washed high purity agar or a silica gel agar.

Because of the large amounts of ammonia this bacterium needs to consume for energy to divide, cell division can take up to several days.  This is perhaps one reason why this microbe is not studied very much.  James E. Alleman, Ph.D. has studied this microbe and discovered that because it is an ammonia-oxidizing soil bacterium, it is known to have a range of substrates that might be useful in bioremediation.  Several studies are still being done with the bacterium, but will take awhile because of the slow cell division time and the high amounts of nitrogen needed to live.

This was an interesting bacterium for one reason:  it does not use photosynthesis for its energy source.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/dlc-me/zoo/zap0534.html

http://hermes.ecn.purdue.edu:8001/http_dir/acad/agr/extn/agr/acspub/html/CES/CES-240.biology.html

http://www.reed.edu/~davidd/thesis.html

http://test.bsi.vt.edu/facultyfiles/biol_4684/Microbes/nitro.html
 

*Disclaimer - This report was written by a student participaring in a microbiology course at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The accuracy of the contents of this report is not guaranteed and it is recommended that you seek additional sources of information to verify the contents.

 

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