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Energy requirement for maintenance of the transmembrane potassium gradient inKlebsiella aerogenesNCTC 418: A continuous culture study

✍ Scribed by S. Hueting; Titia Lange; D. W. Tempest


Book ID
104777893
Publisher
Springer
Year
1979
Tongue
English
Weight
574 KB
Volume
123
Category
Article
ISSN
0302-8933

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✦ Synopsis


With a glucose-limited culture of Klebsiella aerogenes, growing at a fixed dilution rate (0.4 h-1), the specific respiration rate varied progressively as a function of the transmembrane K+ gradient. The latter was varied by changing the input K+ concentration and, under these conditions, the specific respiration rate was linearly related to the electrochemical potential of the K+ gradient. Increasing or decreasing the transmembrane K+ gradient in putatively potassium-limited cultures elicited marked changes in respiration rate consistent with the conclusion that the exceptionally high respiration rates expressed by fully glucose-sufficient potassium-limited cultures (i.e., values in excess of 25 mmol O2/g dry weight organisms . h, at D = 0.4 h-1) are necessary to scavenge traces of K+ from the environment and hence maintain an exceptionally high transmembrane K+ gradient.