Microbiology and Biochemistry of Strict Anaerobes Involved in Interspecies Hydrogen Transfer

The belief that energy might be a limiting factor for the development of humanity led twenty years ago to a great interest being'taken in research on anaerobic digestion. The first international symposium held in Cardiff in 1979 was followed by the meetings in Travenmund (1981), Boston (1983), Guangzhou (1985) and Bologna (1988). By now anaerobic digestion has come to be recognized as an appropriate technology for waste treatment. More recently, the increase in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere and (in developed countries, especially\_ in the EEC) the· fact that more and more land is becoming available for purposes other than food production make biomass production economically and/or socially feasible for industrial purposes. The possibility of using renewable organic carbon resources in this way is of great potential interest for developing biological techniques and could considerably increase the use of anaerobic micro-organisms in cellulose biotransformation and energy production from crop residues. This FEMS Symposium is devoted to the interspecies hydrogen transfer phenomenon involved in the mineralization of organic matter in anaerobiosis. This process is carried out in Nature by consortia of anaerobic micro-organisms living syntrophically. Many industrial applications of these consortia as black boxes for biogas production and waste treatment have been described. Although these early approaches were fruitful, it seems likely that a better knowledge at the molecular level of the more characteristic anaerobic bacteria which constitute these consortia would greatly increase and improve the utilization of these organisms. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Molecular Hydrogen and Energy Conservation in Methanogenic and Acetogenic Bacteria....Pages 3-10 Approaches to Gene Transfer in Methanogenic Bacteria....Pages 11-23 The Hydrogenase Methanococcus Voltae :An Approach to the Biochemical and Genetic Analysis of an Archaebacterial Uptake Hydrogenase....Pages 25-36 Hydrogenase Genes in Desulfovibrio ....Pages 37-51 The Hydrogenases of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria : Physiological, Biochemical and Catalytic Aspects....Pages 53-73 The F 420 -Reducing Hydrogenase of Methanospirillum hungatei Srain GPl....Pages 75-85 Ecological Impact of Syntrophic Alcohol and Fatty Acid Oxidation....Pages 87-98 Methanogenesis from Propionate in Sludge and Enrichment Systems....Pages 99-111 Front Matter....Pages 113-113 Substitution of H 2 -Acceptor Organism with Catalytic Hydrogenation System in Methanogen Coupled Fermentations....Pages 115-119 Hydrogen Transfer in Mixed Cultures of Anaerobic Bacteria and Fungi with Methanobrevibacter Smithii....Pages 121-131 Oxidative Propionate Formation by Anaerobic Bacteria....Pages 133-139 Anaerobic Degradation of Furfural by Defined Mixed Cultures....Pages 141-149 Energetics and Kinetics of Two Complementary Hydrogen Sink Reactions in a Defined 3-Chlorobenzoate Degrading Methanogenic Consortium....Pages 151-160 Role of Hydrogen in the Growth of Mutualistic Methanogenic Cocultures....Pages 161-171 Thermodynamical and Microbiological Evidence of Trophic Microniches for Propionate Degradation in a Methanogenic Sludge-Bed Reactor....Pages 173-183 Dissimilation of Ethanol and Related Compounds by Desulfovibrio Strains....Pages 185-190 Factors Affecting Hydrogen Uptake by Bacteria Growing in the Human Large Intestine....Pages 191-202 Isolation and Characterization of an Anaerobic Bacterium Degrading 4—Chlorobutyrate....Pages 203-212 Carbon and Energy Flow during Acetogenic Metabolism of Unicarbon and Multicarbon Substrates....Pages 213-223 Enrichment of A Mesophilic, Syntrophic Bacterial Consortium Converting Acetate to Methane at High Ammonium Concentrations....Pages 225-234 Front Matter....Pages 113-113 Electron Carrier Proteins in Desulfovibrio Vulgaris Miyazaki....Pages 237-248 Interaction Studies Between Redox Proteins, Cytochrome C 3 , Ferredoxin and Hydrogenase from Sulfate Reducing Bacteria....Pages 249-258 Biochemistry of the Methylcoenzyme M Methylreductase System....Pages 259-267 Energetics of the Growth of a New Syntrophic Benzoate Degrading Bacterium....Pages 269-280 Syntrophic Propionate Oxidation....Pages 281-289 Structural and Functional Properties of the Chromosomal Protein MCl Isolated from Various Strains of Methanosarcinaceae....Pages 291-301 An Archaebacterial in Vitro Transcription System....Pages 305-312 A Survey of Recent Advances in Genetic Engineering in Bacteroides ....Pages 313-327 The Membrane-Bound Hydrogenase of the Photosynthetic Bacterium Rhodobacter Capsulatus ....Pages 329-336 Hydrogenase Mutants of Escherichia coli Defective in Nickel Uptake....Pages 337-348 Front Matter....Pages 349-349 Thermophilic Anaerobic Oxidation of Butyrate in Axenic Culture....Pages 351-353 Eubacterium Acidaminophilum, an Organism Able to Interact in Interspecies H-Transfer Reactions or to Transfer Electrons to Different Terminal Reductase Systems....Pages 355-357 Immunological Properties of Desulfobacter ....Pages 359-360 Fermentation Properties of Four Strictly Anaerobic Rumen Fungal Species: H2-Producing Microorganisms....Pages 361-364 Growth of Bacteroides Xylanolyticus in the Presence and Absence of a Methanogen....Pages 365-368 Hydrogen Metabolism by Termite Gut Microbes....Pages 369-371 Hydrogen and Methanogenesis in Rumen Liquor and in Rumen Ciliate/Methanogen Cocultures....Pages 373-376 Hydrogen Production by Rumen Ciliate Protozoa....Pages 377-379 Methanogenic Bacteria and their Activity in a Subsurface Reservoir of Town Gas....Pages 381-383 Study of the Transition of Activated Sludges to an Adapted Anaerobic Inoculum for Anaerobic Digestion....Pages 385-386 Front Matter....Pages 349-349 Effects of Elevated Hydrogen Partial Pressures on Anaerobic Treatment of Carbohydrate....Pages 387-390 Hydrogen Production in Anaerobic Biofilms....Pages 391-393 Effects of Various Headspace Gases on the Production of Volatile Fatty Acids....Pages 395-397 Mass Transfer of Hydrogen in a Culture of Methanobacterium Thermoautotrophicum Strain Hveragerdi....Pages 399-401 Physiology and Metabolic Features of a Novel Methanogenic Isolate....Pages 403-405 Thermophilic Anaerobic Oxidation of Ethanol....Pages 407-410 Efficiency of Bacterial Protein Synthesis and Methanogenesis During Anaerobic Degradation....Pages 411-413 Trace Methane in Some Proteolytic Nonglucidolytic Clostridia: The Role of Some S-Methyl and N-Methyl Compounds....Pages 415-417 Inhibition Kinetics by H 2 , Acetate and Propionate in Methanogenesis from Propionate in a Mixed Culture....Pages 419-421 Hydrogen Content in Biogas as a State Indicator of Methanogenesis from Wastes....Pages 423-425 Interspecies Transport of Hydrogen in Thermophilic Anaerobic Cellulose Decomposition....Pages 427-429 Characterization of a Sulfate Reducing Bacterium Isolated from a Hypersaline African Lake....Pages 431-433 Isolation and Characterization of an Ethanol-Degrading Anaerobe from Methanogenic Granular Sludge....Pages 435-437 The Role of Fe(III) Reduction in Anaerobic Processes....Pages 439-442 Glycerol Degradation by Desulfovibrio SP. in Pure Culture and in Coculture with Methanospirillum Hungatei ....Pages 443-445 1, 2 - and 1, 3 - Propanediol Degradation by Desulfovibrio Alcoholovorans SP. Nov., in Pure Culture or Through H 2 Interspecies Transfer....Pages 447-449 Long Chain Fatty Acid Degradation by a Mesophilic Syntrophic Coculture Isolated from Margin....Pages 451-453 Effect of Sulfide and Reactor Operational Parameters on Sulfate Reducing Bacteria....Pages 455-457 Hydrogen Transfer Between Neocallimastix Frontalis and Selenomonas Ruminantium Grown in Mixed Culture....Pages 459-461 Front Matter....Pages 463-465 Phylogenetic Analysis of Methanogenic Bacteria....Pages 349-349 An Acetate - Decomposing Sulphidogenic Syntrophic Association....Pages 467-467 Anaerobic Digestion of Proteins, Peptides and Amino Acids....Pages 469-470 Isolation of Syntrophic Bacteria on Metabolic Intermediates....Pages 471-472 Isolation of a Propionate-Using, Sulfate-Reducing Bacterium....Pages 473-476 Characterization of a Sulfate - Reducing Bacterium Isolated from the Gut of a Tropical Soil Termite....Pages 477-479 Relationship Between Methanogenesis and Sulfate Reduction in Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Sewage Sludge....Pages 481-483 The Effect of Temperature on Butyrate Degradation....Pages 485-487 Thermophilic Degradation of Butyrate, Propionate and Acetate in Granular Sludge....Pages 489-491 Differential Effects of Sodium and Carbon Monoxide on the H2-and Glucose-Dependent Growth of the Thermophilic Acetogen Acetogenium Kivui ....Pages 493-495 One-Carbon Metabolism by the Rumen Acetogen Syntrophococcus Sucromutans ....Pages 497-499 Structural and Functional Properties of a Ferredoxin Isolated from Methanococcus thermolithotrophicus ....Pages 503-506 Desulfovibrio Gigas Hydrogenase : Crystallographic Studies....Pages 507-509 Kinetic studies of electron transfer between hydrogenase and cytochrome c 3 by electrochemistry....Pages 511-513 Hydrogenase in Desulfobacter ....Pages 515-517 ATP-Synthesis Coupled to the Terminal Step of Methanogenesis....Pages 519-520 Expression of an Eubacterial Puromycin Resistance Gene in the Archaebacterium Methanococcus Voltae ....Pages 521-523 Cloning and Sequencing the Locus Encoding for the Large and Small Subunit Genes of the Periplasmic [Ni FeS] Hydrogenase from Desulfovibrio Fructosovorans ....Pages 527-529 Back Matter....Pages 531-534 ....Pages 535-543