Stoichiometry of carbohydrate fermentation and microbial growth efficiency in a continous culture of mixed rumen bacteria

✍ Scribed by C. J. Nevel; D. I. Demeyer

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 476 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1432-0614
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00505016

✦ Synopsis

A population of mixed rumen bacteria was maintained in a chemostar at four different dilution rates, with glucose as the growth limiting carbon and energy substrate. Increasing the dilution rate shifted the proportions of end products: methane decreased and propionate increased. Fermentation and hydrogen balances were calculated from the fermentation end products. Values were similar to earlier ones from batch incubations of rumen contents. This suggests that theoretical overall reaction schemes for carbohydrate fermentation in the rumen, proposed earlier, are also valid in continuous culture.

A positive correlation between dilution rate and microbial growth efficiency (gNinc./kg OMf) was observed, confirming earlier work.

Apparently conflicting results of chemostat work and recent in vivo experiments are discussed.