THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BIOMASS CONCENTRATION, DETERMINED BY A CAPACITANCE-BASED PROBE, RHEOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY OF SACCHAROPOLYSPORA-ERYTHRAEA CULTURES

Saccharopolyspora erythraea was grown in submerged culture at two agit ation speeds, 750 and 1000 rpm, on a soluble medium with glucose as th e main carbon source. There was good agreement during the growth phase between a commercial capacitance probe and biomass concentrations as determined by dry weight measurements. However, later in the cultures when the biomass concentration was declining, the two methods diverged due to part of the biomass solids becoming inactive lysed cells. The higher agitation speed resulted in more fragmentation of the mycelia a nd a lower viscosity, but the output from the biomass probe was unaffe cted by these changes.