Studies on the function of sodium in marine bacteria.

A number of marine bacteria have been found to have a specific requirement for sodium for growth and for metabolism. The specific function of this monovalent ion for the cells, however, is still unknown. The aim of this project is to study the function of sodium in a Gram-negative marine pseudomonad. Three different approaches were taken to investigate this problem. The first one consisted in comparing the biochemical properties of a Na+ requiring marine bacterium and some non-Na+ requiring mutants derived from it