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. 1989 Jul;55(7):1735–1741. doi: 10.1128/aem.55.7.1735-1741.1989

Diffusion of the Interspecies Electron Carriers H2 and Formate in Methanogenic Ecosystems and Its Implications in the Measurement of Km for H2 or Formate Uptake

David R Boone 1,*, Richard L Johnson 1, Yitai Liu 1
PMCID: PMC202943  PMID: 16347966

Abstract

We calculated the potential H2 and formate diffusion between microbes and found that at H2 concentrations commonly found in nature, H2 could not diffuse rapidly enough to dispersed methanogenic cells to account for the rate of methane synthesis but formate could. Our calculations were based on individual organisms dispersed in the medium, as supported by microscopic observations of butyrate-degrading cocultures. We isolated an axenic culture of Syntrophomonas wolfei and cultivated it on butyrate in syntrophic coculture with Methanobacterium formicicum; during growth the H2 concentration was 63 nM (10.6 Pa). S. wolfei contained formate dehydrogenase activity (as does M. formicicum), which would allow interspecies formate transfer in that coculture. Thus, interspecies formate transfer may be the predominant mechanism of syntrophy. Our diffusion calculations also indicated that H2 concentration at the cell surface of H2-consuming organisms was low but increased to approximately the bulk-fluid concentration at a distance of about 10 μm from the surface. Thus, routine estimation of kinetic parameters would greatly overestimate the Km for H2 or formate.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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