The determination of fungal biomass using adenosine triphosphate

Abstract

Growth of Trichoderma reesei in batch culture with glucose as the carbon source was followed by measuring culture absorbance, culture dry weight, mycelial protein, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content of the biomass. All methods except extraction of mycelial protein gave measurements which resulted in similar specific growth rates. During exponential growth the ratio of ATP per unit weight was 6.8 μmol ATP/g dry wt. During autolysis the half-life of the ATP content of the biomass was much shorter than the half-life of mycelial protein or culture dry weight. The addition of holocellulose to the culture did not affect the efficiency of the ATP extraction and detection procedures employed, and therefore ATP measurements can be utilized to estimate fungal biomass in cellulose fermentations. However, the presence of a clay caused a considerable decrease in the amount of ATP recovered from fungal biomass.