J. Miron et al., INTERACTIONS BETWEEN RUMEN BACTERIAL STRAINS DURING THE DEGRADATION AND UTILIZATION OF THE MONOSACCHARIDES OF BARLEY STRAW CELL-WALLS, Journal of Applied Bacteriology, 76(3), 1994, pp. 282-287
Pure cultures and pair-combinations of strains representative of the r
umen cellulolytic species Ruminococcus flavefaciens, Fibrobacter succi
nogenes and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens were grown on cell-wall material
s from barley straw. Of the pure cultures, R. flavefaciens solubilized
straw most rapidly. The presence of B. fibrisolvens, which was unable
to degrade straw extensively in pure culture, increased the solubiliz
ation of dry matter by R. flavefaciens and the solubilization of cell-
wall carbohydrates by both R. flavefaciens and F. succinogenes. During
fermentation, both R. flavefaciens and F. succinogenes released bound
glucose and free and bound arabinose and xylose into solution. The ac
cumulation of these sugars, especially arabinose and xylose, was great
ly reduced in co-cultures containing B. fibrisolvens, suggesting that
significant interspecies cross feeding of the products of hemicellulos
e hydrolysis (particularly soluble bound xylose released by F. succino
genes) occurs during straw degradation by mixed cultures containing th
is species.