ABSTRACT
Background Nitrosomonas europaea is a widely studied chemolithoautotrophic ammonia oxidizing bacterium (AOB) that catalyzes the aerobic oxidation of ammonia (NH3) to nitrite (NO2
-) using carbon dioxide (CO2) as the preferred assimilative carbon source [1]. Bacteria closely related to N. europaea have been found in various natural and engineered environments indicating that they can proliferate under dierent growth conditions, by eectively utilizing growth substrates such as NH3 and oxygen [2-4].
