Respiratory Kinetics of Marine Bacteria Exposed to Decreasing Oxygen Concentrations

During aerobic respiration, microorganisms consume oxygen (O2) through the use of different types of terminal oxidases which have a wide range of affinities for O2. The Km values for O2 of these enzymes have been determined to be in the range of 3 to 200 nmol liter(-1). In this study, we examined the time course of development of aerobic respiratory kinetics of four marine bacterial species (Dinoroseobacter shibae, Roseobacter denitrificans, Idiomarina loihiensis, and Marinobacter daepoensis) during exposure to decreasing O2 concentrations. The genomes of all four species have genes for both high-affinity and low-affinity terminal oxidases. The respiration rate of the bacteria was measured by the use of extremely sensitive optical trace O2 sensors (range, 1 to 1,000 nmol liter(-1)). Three of the four isolates exhibited apparent Km values of 30 to 60 nmol liter(-1) when exposed to submicromolar O2 concentrations, but a decrease to values below 10 nmol liter(-1) was observed when the respiration rate per cell was lowered and the cell size was decreased due to starvation. The fourth isolate did not reach a low respiration rate per cell during starvation and exhibited apparent Km values of about 20 nmol liter(-1) throughout the experiment. The results clearly demonstrate not only that enzyme kinetics may limit O2 uptake but also that even individual cells may be diffusion limited and that this diffusion limitation is the most pronounced at high respiration rates. A decrease in cell size by starvation, due to limiting organic carbon, and thereby more efficient diffusion uptake may also contribute to lower apparent Km values.