Effects of salts on the lethality of paraquat.

Escherichia coli suffered 95 to 100% lethality when exposed to 1.0 mM paraquat for 30 min at 37 degrees C in aerobic nutrient broth medium but did not lose viability when the exposure was done in Vogel Bonner or tryptic soy yeast extract medium. Paraquat was, however, bacteriostatic in all of these media. Salts, added to the nutrient broth medium, protected against the lethality of paraquat, whereas sucrose did not. Salts of divalent cations were much more effective than salts of monovalent cations. Paraquat increases cyanide-resistant respiration by E. coli; salts added before, but not after, the paraquat diminished this effect. 2,4-Dinitrophenol similarly decreased the cyanide-resistant respiration when added before, but not after, the paraquat. The lethality imposed by paraquat correlated with the rate of cyanide-resistant respiration whether this respiration was modulated by varying salt concentration at a fixed concentration of paraquat or by varying paraquat concentration at a fixed concentration of salt. We conclude that salts or 2,4-dinitrophenol interferes with the active uptake of paraquat by E. coli and thus prevents its lethal effect. The salt concentrations found in a number of commonly used microbiological media are sufficient to exert this effect.