Description

Production of nitrous oxide (N₂O) from nitrite (NO₂^- ) under anaerobic conditions

The behavior of untransformed E. coli and untransformed P. aeruginosa is characterized while growing in the presence of NO₂^- in an anaerobic reaction chamber by measuring the conversion of nitrite (NO₂^-) to nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N₂O).

In this anaerobic experiment we add nitrite in a series of spikes to an untransformed strain of E. coli and to an untransformed strain of P. aeruginosa in order to test how readily nitrite is converted to nitric oxide, and subsequently to nitrous oxide. We also monitor nitrite, ammonia and nitrate concentrations before each spike. The concentrations of both gasses are measured continually, and the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate concentrations will be measured after nitrite is spiked.

Methods

For the calibration of the electrodes we follow the Calibration protocol

The procedure is based on Experiment 2

Results

Round 1

Mg of Nitrogen (as nitrite or nitrous oxide) per litre measured for varying concentrations of Nitrite added at t=0. All experiments were performed anaerobically.

Round 2