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NaCl concentration determines the outcome of competition experiments betweenVibrio pelagius andVibrio cholerae in chemostat cultures

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Abstract

The effect of NaCl concentration gradients on the growth of a marine species,Vibrio pelagius, and two freshwater and estuarine species,Vibrio cholerae andAeromonas hydrophila, was determined in chemostat cultures containing a mineral medium withd-glucose as the sole source of carbon and energy. Complementary cell density profiles were obtained with the marine and the freshwater-estuarine species at the extreme ends of the NaCl concentration gradients. At the lower NaCl concentrations,V. cholerae andA. hydrophila attained maximal cell densities, while no growth or submaximal cell yields were characteristic ofV. pelagius; the reverse was true at the higher NaCl concentrations. At the intermediate concentrations (100–400 mM) all three organisms were able to grow with cell densities ranging from 80%–100% of the maximum. Competition experiments betweenV. cholerae andV. pelagius within this region (100, 150, and 300 mM) indicated that the lower NaCl concentrations favoredV. cholerae while the higher concentrations favoredV. pelagius. The results suggest that the responses ofV. pelagius, V. cholerae, andA. hydrophila to different concentrations of NaCl are important in determining the environmental distribution of these species.

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Bowditch, R.D., Baumann, P. NaCl concentration determines the outcome of competition experiments betweenVibrio pelagius andVibrio cholerae in chemostat cultures. Current Microbiology 11, 221–225 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01567164

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