Product formation by a nitrogen limited culture of Beneckea natriegens in a chemostat in the presence of excess glucose

Abstract

Beneckea natriegens was grown in continuous culture at various growth rates under nitrogen limitation in the presence of excess unmetabolised glucose. The bacterial protein content (% dry weight) varied significantly with growth rate, but as the absolute amount of bacterial protein in the culture was independent of growth rate the latter was used in the calculation of kinetic data instead of bacterial dry weight. Under carbon-excess conditions glucose was overmetabolised to extracellular products and a maximum yield of 0.53 g product C·g−1 glucose C was observed at D=0.04 h−1. The yield of soluble metabolic products decreased and the yield of cells increased with increasing growth rate.