earticle

영어

The effect of culture medium copper availability on the specific growth rate() and carbon conversion efficiency (CCE) was sutided for an obligatory methanotroph Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b under various combinations of carbon and nitrogen sources. Methane or methanol was used as a carbon source, and nitrate or ammonium was used as a nitrogen source. Medium copper availability determined the intracellular location or kind of methane monooxygenase (MMO), cell-membrane (particulate or pMMO) when copper was present and cytoplasm (soluble or sMMO) when copper was deficient. When methane was used as a carbon source, copper-containing medium exhibited higher and CCE than copper-free medium regardless of the kind of nitrogen source. When methanol was used as a carbon source, however, the effect of copper disappeared. Ammonium gave the higher and CCE than nitrate for both methane and methanol. Those observation suggest that there exist an important difference in energy utilization efficiency for methane assimilation between sMMO and pMMO.