Affiliations: Department of Plant Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA | Department Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Prof. Bob B. Buchanan, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, 111 Koshland Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Tel.: +1 510 642 3580; Fax: +1 510 642 7356; E‐mail: view@ nature.berkeley.edu.
Abstract: When introduced into a chemically defined minimal medium supplemented with 1 mM sodium selenite (79 ppm Se^{\circ}), Bacillus subtilis was found to undergo a series of morphological and biochemical adaptations. The morphological changes included the formation of “round bodies” associated with the detoxification of selenite to elemental selenium. Round bodies observed transiently were not apparent during balanced growth of cells adapted previously to selenite‐containing medium. Under balanced growth conditions, cell structures similar to “round bodies”, could be produced by treating cells with lysozyme. The selenite‐induced structural alterations in cells were accompanied by an increase in the content of thioredoxin and the associated enzyme, NADP‐thioredoxin reductase. The results suggest that the biovalence transformation of high levels of selenite may involve a dithiol system.
Journal: Biofactors, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 311-319, 1999
