GROWTH-KINETICS OF ARTHROBACTER-GLOBIFORMIS AND PSEUDOMONAS-FLUORESCENS IN MEDIA WITH GLASS-FIBERS

Bacteria were grown in batch cultures in media containing an inert sol id phase in the form of glass fibers or glass wool. The authors traced the dynamics of all basic components of the carbon balance of microbi al growth: residual content of the substrate (glucose), amount of exom etabolites, including CO2 + HCO3-, and also the biomass of free and im mobilized cells. It was shown that the adhesion of bacteria to the sur face of glass fibers is of a strictly regular nature and depends on th e culture's growth phase, the composition of the medium, conditions of gas exchange, and hereditarily fixed properties of the microorganisms , which are determined by their ecological strategy. In a culture of A rthrobacter globiformis, strong immobilization of cells took place in the exponential growth phase, while in a culture of Pseudomonas fluore scens, it was in the death phase. With limited aeration and the accomp anying accumulation of CO2 + HCO3-, binding of bacteria in the culture was more complete and was accompanied by an increase in the viability of starving pseudomonads. Immobilization led to a rise in the microbi al growth rate and the degree of its balance.