[Chemcial aspects of the energy process in nitrate reduction in different representatives of soil microflora]

Chemical aspects of dissimilatory nitrate reduction were studied by mass spectrometry in the following soil bacteria: Bacillus filaris, Bacillus polymyxa and Pseudomonas denitrificans. Chemical peculiarity of this process in spore-forming soil bacteria is the simultaneous operation of two energy processes: denitrification and nitrate respiration. The first process is terminated by the formation of molecular nitrogen, the second, by the production of ammonia. The quantitative ratio between these processes demonstrates the advantage of nitrate respiration in the overall energy pathway of nitrate dissimilation. Pseudomonas denitrificans maintains the abilityfor intensive gas production as a result of denitrification upon long storage on artificial media: ca. 34 per cent of the nitrate nitrogen is reduced to gaseous forms of nitrogen.