SELECTIVITY OF FOOD BACTERIA FOR THE GROWTH OF ANAEROBIC CILIATE TRIMYEMA-COMPRESSUM

The anaerobic ciliate Trimyema cornpressum was cultivated on various f ood bacteria. Significant growth was observed when Lactobacillus sp., Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Desulfovibrio vulgaris, Meth anoculleus bourgense, or Pelobacter propionicus cells were fed to the ciliates. The highest cell yield which we obtained was ca. 9,000 cells /ml when feeding D. vulgaris. However, no growth of the ciliates was o bserved on the culture with Clostridium novyi, Propionibacterium sp., Desulfobulbus propionicus, Methanobrevibacter arboriphilicus, Methanob acterium sp., Methanosarcina barkeri, or Methanothrix soehngenii cells . The ciliates produced acetate and methane as major end products in a ny cultures and small amounts of propionate, butyrate and hydrogen wer e also detected in some cultures. Physiological studies on the food ba cteria which we tested indicated that the growth of T. compressum depe nded on the bacterial species, but there was no apparent correlation b etween the digestibility and the basic properties of those bacteria (i .e. size of the bacteria, gram-staining properties, susceptibility to the known lytic enzymes, Archaea or Bacteria).