This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gerritse, J Articles by Gottschal, J C Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gerritse, J Articles by Gottschal, J C Agricola Articles by Gerritse, J Articles by Gottschal, J C

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Appl Environ Microbiol. 1992 May; 58(5): 1466-1476

Modelling of mixed chemostat cultures of an aerobic bacterium, Comamonas testosteroni, and an anaerobic bacterium, Veillonella alcalescens: comparison with experimental data.

Department of Microbiology, University of Groningen, Haren, The Netherlands.

ABSTRACT

A mathematical model of mixed chemostat cultures of the obligately aerobic bacterium Comamonas testosteroni and the anaerobic bacterium Veillonella alcalescens grown under dual limitation of L-lactate and oxygen was constructed. The model was based on Michaelis-Menten-type kinetics for the consumption of substrates, with noncompetitive inhibition of V. alcalescens by O2. The growth characteristics of the aerobic and anaerobic organisms were determined experimentally with pure cultures of the individual species in (oxygen-limited) chemostats. Using these pure-culture data in the model of the mixed culture resulted in a good description of the actual mixed cultures of the two bacteria. In the actual mixed-culture experiments, coexistence of the two species occurred only when the cultures were oxygen limited. With increasing oxygen supply (the actual oxygen concentration in the culture remaining at less than 0.2 microM), the biomass of C. testosteroni increased, whereas that of V. alcalescens decreased. Apparently, C. testosteroni protected V. alcalescens from inhibition by oxygen by maintaining sufficiently low oxygen concentrations. The model calculations indicated that competition between the aerobic and the anaerobic bacterium for common substrates (L-lactate and oxygen) occurred and that the anaerobe was the better competitor. Analysis of the culture fluid indicated that C. testosteroni grew primarily at the expense of the fermentation products of V. alcalescens, i.e., propionate and acetate. The model further indicated that with different values of several growth parameters (e.g., substrate affinity and/or inhibition constants), the affinity of the aerobic organism for oxygen and the sensitivity of the anaerobic organism for oxygen were the most important properties determining the coexistence of these two physiologically different types of bacteria.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• van Bodegom, P., Stams, F., Mollema, L., Boeke, S., Leffelaar, P. (2001). Methane Oxidation and the Competition for Oxygen in the Rice Rhizosphere. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67: 3586-3597 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Gößner, A. S., Devereux, R., Ohnemüller, N., Acker, G., Stackebrandt, E., Drake, H. L. (1999). Thermicanus aegyptius gen. nov., sp. nov., Isolated from Oxic Soil, a Fermentative Microaerophile That Grows Commensally with the Thermophilic Acetogen Moorella thermoacetica. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65: 5124-5133 [Abstract] [Full Text]