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✦   LIBER   ✦

Life-cycle kinetic model for endospore-forming bacteria, including germination and sporulation

✍ Scribed by Seongjun Park; Bruce E. Rittmann; Wookeun Bae


Book ID
102764171
Publisher
John Wiley and Sons
Year
2009
Tongue
English
Weight
944 KB
Volume
104
Category
Article
ISSN
0006-3592

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✦ Synopsis


Abstract

We develop a mechanistic life‐cycle model for endospore‐forming bacteria (EFB) and test the model with experiments with a Bacillus mixed culture. The model integrates and quantifies how sporulation and germination are triggered by depletion or presence of a limiting substrate, while both substrates affect the rate of vegetative growth by a multiplicative model. Kinetic experiments show the accumulation of small spherical spores after the triggering substrate is depleted, substantially more rapid decay during sporulation than for normal decay of vegetative cells, and a higher specific substrate utilization rate for the germinating cells than that for growth of vegetative cells. Model simulations capture all of these experimental trends. According to model predictions, when a batch reactor is started, seeding with EFB spores instead of active EFB delays the onset of rapid chemical oxygen demand (COD) utilization and biomass growth, but the end points are the same. Simulated results with low aeration intensity show that germination can consume some substrate without dissolved oxygen (DO) depletion. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009; 104: 1012–1024. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.