NO3/NO2 OXIDISING/REDUCING BACTERIA

[Lesley Robertson]

REBECCA MILLS <REBECCA at beccas.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Does anyone know of published or reference methods for quantifying 
>nitrate and/or nitrite oxidising and/or reducing bacteria in water?
>I'ld be grateful for any leads!
>Please reply to this newsgroup, or E-mail me on Beccas at demon.co.uk
>Thanks in advance!
>-- 
>REBECCA MILLS
>


For ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, a low-phosphate Most Probable Number, 
although old-fashioned, still gives the most repeatable results. 
Alternatively, if you have a standard ammonia-oxidizer, you can estimate 
ammonia-oxidizing numbers from oxygen uptake. Denitrifiers and 
dissimilatory nitrate reducers are usually quite happy to grow on solid 
media - a suitable agar at the pH of the original samples, with nitrate 
or nitrite and a suitable substrate. For non-specific counts, I use a 
cocktail of fructose, acetate and yeast extract.
See FEMS Microbiology Ecology 102:109-118.

Lesley Robertson
L.A.Robertson at stm.tudelft.nl
Kluyver Laboratory, Delft University of Technology