Contribution of Protein and Lipid Components to the Salt Response of Envelopes of an Extremely Halophilic Bacterium

Kushner, D. J. (National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), and H. Onishi. Contribution of protein and lipid components to the salt response of envelopes of an extremely halophilic bacterium. J. Bacteriol. 91:653–660. 1966.—Removal of protein from envelopes of Halobacterium cutirubrum by peptic digestion left residues that required little or no salt for stability. The salt requirement of envelopes was also lowered by incubation in 0.1 m MgCl2, and could be lowered even further by digestion with trypsin or chymotrypsin in 0.1 m MgCl2. Dissolution of envelopes in low salt concentrations made their protein more susceptible to attack by these and other proteolytic enzymes. Removal of lipids raised the requirement for divalent cations, particularly for Mg++; it slightly increased the Na+ requirement and did not affect the requirement for K+. It was concluded that the requirement for high salt concentrations in extreme halophiles is due to mutual repulsion between negatively charged groups on proteins rather than to repulsion between negatively charged phosphate groups on the lipids. The latter act primarily as sites on which divalent cations, especially Mg++ which is required in high concentrations by growing cells, are bound. In this manner, the phosphate groups support envelope structure.