Abstract
A membrane-inlet mass spectrometer connected to an open system was used to measure methane, oxygen and carbon monoxide metabolism in whole cells of strain OU-4-1, a locally isolated type II methanotrophic bacterium. Methane and oxygen uptake were found to follow Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Methane oxygenation to methanol by methane monooxygenase was found to be the rate-limiting step in methane oxidation. The reaction between methane, oxygen and methane monooxygenase was followed in experiments where one of the gases was kept at a constant concentration while the other was varied. The reaction pattern showed random binding of the two substrates and that binding of one substrate decreased the affinity for the other. The binding constants were 1 µM for methane and 0.14 µM for oxygen. Hydrogen cyanide was a non-exclusive inhibitor of both methane and oxygen consumption with an inhibitor constant of 0.4 µM. Oxidation of carbon monoxide was observed at about the same rate as methane oxidation when methanol, formaldehyde or formate were added as cosubstrate. High concentrations of methanol inhibited carbon monoxide oxidation without affecting oxygen uptake.
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Joergensen, L. (1985). The Reaction Mechanism of Methane Monooxygenase Studied by Membrane-Inlet Mass Spectrometry in Whole Cells of Methanotrophic Bacteria. In: Degn, H., Cox, R.P., Toftlund, H. (eds) Gas Enzymology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5279-9_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5279-9_13
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