Growth of Organisms in Ammonia: Kakabekia, A Microbial Enigma

Abstract

This paper focuses on a few of the organisms, including a relict form, that utilize ammonia as their sources of nitrogen or can live under conditions with a minimum of 50% ammonia -50% air at pHs above 9. Though many bacteria can grow in ammonia and some are even ammonia requiring, only a few heterotrophic flagellate protozoans have been reported to survive with ammonia as their only nitrogen source. Bacteria in ruminants also utilize ammonia and other comparatively simple organic compounds such as urea, which can act as a source of nitrogen for synthesizing amino and nucleic acids within the host. A number of higher plants, especially Allium sp. are capable of germination in high ammonia environments (Siegel and Daly, 1996). A critical element in any community metabolic system is nitrogen, as it constitutes a major components of amino and nucleic acids.