Phototrophic utilization of taurine by the purple nonsulfur bacteria Rhodopseudomonas palustris and Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

Taurine metabolism by two phototrophically grown purple nonsulfur bacteria enrichment isolates has been examined. Rhodopseudomonas palustris (strain Tau1) grows with taurine as a sole electron donor, sulfur and nitrogen source during photoautotrophic growth. Rhodobacter sphaeroides (strain Tau3) grows on the compound as sole electron donor, sulfur and nitrogen source, and partial carbon source, in the presence of CO(2) during photoheterotrophic growth.

Sulfoacetaldehyde bisulfite adduct is a substrate for enzymes presumed to act on sulfoacetaldehyde.

Sulfoacetaldehyde, an intermediate of interest to those studying microbial metabolism of sulfonates, is commonly synthesized as the bisulfite adduct. A published method presumed to convert this to the free aldehyde (and cited several times elsewhere in the literature) has been shown to be ineffective; this had not been realized by its users because the enzymes under study recognize the adduct as a substrate.