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Assimilation efficiency of Vibrio bacterial protein biomass by the flagellate Pteridomonas: Assessment using flow cytometric sorting

Assimilation efficiency of Vibrio bacterial protein biomass by the flagellate Pteridomonas: Assessment using flow cytometric sorting
Assimilation efficiency of Vibrio bacterial protein biomass by the flagellate Pteridomonas: Assessment using flow cytometric sorting
A flow cytometric sorting technique for direct determination of bacterial biomass assimilation by phagotrophic flagellates was developed and tested in laboratory culture experiments. Living Vibrio bacteria were quantitatively pulse-chase labelled with [35S]methionine tracer and fed to Pteridomonas flagellates. Flow sorting revealed that the isotopically labelled material is in either bacterial prey or flagellate predators and the egested bacterial debris contained negligible amounts of tracer. These experimental results confirm an earlier hypothesis that flagellates release metabolised bacterial proteins primarily in a dissolved form. The assimilation efficiency of the Vibrio protein biomass by Pteridomonas was low, only about 20%, independently of the amount of consumed bacterial biomass, confirming our earlier indirect estimates. Additionally, against expectations that cells decrease their metabolic activity whilst preparing for and engaged in division, we found that the precursor uptake rates by flow sorted bacterial cells at the S + G2 cell cycle stages were constantly 1.5 times higher than those of cells at the G1 stage.
marine protist, bacterivory, prokaryotic cell cycle, isotopic tracer
281-286
Zubkov, M.V.
b1dfb3a0-bcff-430c-9031-358a22b50743
Sleigh, M.A.
56f48166-32e6-4bc8-bc02-bc0667280989
Zubkov, M.V.
b1dfb3a0-bcff-430c-9031-358a22b50743
Sleigh, M.A.
56f48166-32e6-4bc8-bc02-bc0667280989

Zubkov, M.V. and Sleigh, M.A. (2005) Assimilation efficiency of Vibrio bacterial protein biomass by the flagellate Pteridomonas: Assessment using flow cytometric sorting. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 54 (2), 281-286. (doi:10.1016/j.femsec.2005.04.001).

Record type: Article

Abstract

A flow cytometric sorting technique for direct determination of bacterial biomass assimilation by phagotrophic flagellates was developed and tested in laboratory culture experiments. Living Vibrio bacteria were quantitatively pulse-chase labelled with [35S]methionine tracer and fed to Pteridomonas flagellates. Flow sorting revealed that the isotopically labelled material is in either bacterial prey or flagellate predators and the egested bacterial debris contained negligible amounts of tracer. These experimental results confirm an earlier hypothesis that flagellates release metabolised bacterial proteins primarily in a dissolved form. The assimilation efficiency of the Vibrio protein biomass by Pteridomonas was low, only about 20%, independently of the amount of consumed bacterial biomass, confirming our earlier indirect estimates. Additionally, against expectations that cells decrease their metabolic activity whilst preparing for and engaged in division, we found that the precursor uptake rates by flow sorted bacterial cells at the S + G2 cell cycle stages were constantly 1.5 times higher than those of cells at the G1 stage.

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Published date: 2005
Keywords: marine protist, bacterivory, prokaryotic cell cycle, isotopic tracer

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 18657
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/18657
PURE UUID: 309865e7-7fd8-47d2-8138-8473a2f07ef5

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Date deposited: 16 Nov 2005
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 06:06

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Contributors

Author: M.V. Zubkov
Author: M.A. Sleigh

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