Taxonomic Evaluation of Nitrate Respiration and Carbohydrate Fermentation in Aerobic Bacteria

Abstract

Several kinds of aerobic bacteria utilize nitrate as hydrogen acceptors in place of molecular oxygen, and grow anaerobically in the presence of nitrate. This respiratory phenomenon is called “nitrate respiration” (1), but it has not been widely used as a criterion for taxonomy. Fermentation of carbohydrates is also a mode of typical anaerobic respiration in microorganisms. Hugh and Leifson (2) reported that Gram-negative bacteria should be divided into several groups on the basis of the mode of cleavage of carbohydrates. This proposal was accepted by several workers and employed for the determination of aerobic bacteria (3, 4, 5, 6). In the previous papers (7, 8), it was reported that ability of nitrate respiration and the mode of cleavage of carbohydrates are appropriate as taxonomic features of the genus Pseudomonas. As the mode of respiration is considered to reflect stages in the evolutionary process, the authors were interested in examining the occurrence of nitrate respiration and fermentative cleavage of carbohydrates in aerobic bacteria. This paper presents the distribution of these characteristics and discusses the interrelation of several genera of aerobic bacteria. © 1965, Applied Microbiology, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Research Foundation. All rights reserved.