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A comparison between aerobic growth of Bacillus licheniformis in continuous culture and partial-recycling fermentor, with contributions to the discussion on maintenance energy demand

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Abstract

Energy costs of biomass synthesis are relatively higher at low than at high specific growth rates (μ) because of an increased protein content of the cell and increased costs of protein synthesis as such at low μ values. A comparison of aerobic, glucose limited cultures of Bacillus licheniformis in a chemostat and in a partial-recycling fermentor indicated that pulse-wise nutrient addition increased the maintenance energy demand (m). In the chemostat experiments, we also found a striking deviation from linearity between substrate consumption and μ, with large implications for the maintenance coefficient. The deviation is mainly due to a large shift in metabolic carbon flows at specific growth rates between 50 and 100% of μmax. At those growth rates, uncoupled growth occurs, presumably as a necessary condition for faster growth, since uncoupling results in a faster energysupply for biosynthetic purposes.

The maintenance coefficient as determined by chemostat studies should be regarded as a compounds parameter, constituted of maintenance energy demands like ppGpp accumulation, variable costs of mRNA and protein accumulation, kinetic proofreading etc. and influenced by fermentor operation parameters like the substrate addition rate; moreover, both constancy of m and a linear relation between m and μ appear quite unlikely.

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Abbreviations

aa :

amino acids

b :

O2 reduced per substratecarbon dissimilated (mol/C-mol)

C-rec :

%-age carbon-recovery

d :

fraction of carbon substrate converted into CO2 (%-age dissimilation)

D :

dilution rate (1/1×h)

DW :

dry weight of biomass (g/l)

E 440 :

light-extinction at 440 nm

γ:

reduction degree (no dimension)

k :

decay rate-constant (h-1)

1:

liter

m :

maintenance requirement (mol/g DWxh)

μ:

specific growth-rate (h-1)

N :

Avogadro's constant (mol-1)

(p)ppGpp:

guanosine 5′-(tri)diphosphate, 3′-diphosphate

PRF:

partial-recycling fermentor

q :

specific rate of consumption or production (mol/g DW x h)

r :

rate of consumption or production (mol/h)

S R :

substrate concentration in nutrient (mol/l)

rel +, rel- :

stringent, relaxed genotype

rpm :

rotations per min

X :

biomass (g/l)

Y :

molar growth yield (g DW/mol)

y c :

fraction of carbon substrate converted into biomass (%-age assimilation)

z :

fraction of carbon substrate converted into exocellular products (%-age production) sub-/super-scripts

b:

biomass

corr:

corrected for formation of exocellular products

e:

energy (ATP)

m:

maximal

0:

zcro-time

p:

exocellular product

s:

substrate

t:

time

x:

biomass

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Biological Laboratory, Free University, de Boelelaan 1087, NL-1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Ben A. Bulthuis, Gregory M. Koningstein, Adriaan H. Stouthamer & Henk W. van Verseveld

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  1. Ben A. Bulthuis
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  2. Gregory M. Koningstein
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  3. Adriaan H. Stouthamer
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  4. Henk W. van Verseveld
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Bulthuis, B.A., Koningstein, G.M., Stouthamer, A.H. et al. A comparison between aerobic growth of Bacillus licheniformis in continuous culture and partial-recycling fermentor, with contributions to the discussion on maintenance energy demand. Arch. Microbiol. 152, 499–507 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00446937

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00446937

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