Growth kinetics of Escherichia coli with galactose and several other sugars in carbon-limited chemostat culture

Kinetic models for microbial growth describe the specific growth rate (mu) as a function of the concentration of the growth-limiting nutrient (s) and a set of parameters. A typical example is the model proposed by Monod, wher e mu is related to s using substrate affinity (K-s) and the maximum specifi c growth rate (mu(max)). The preferred method to determine such parameters is to grow microorganisms in continuous culture and to measure the concentr ation of the growth-limiting substrate as a function of the dilution rate. However, owing to the lack of analytical methods to quantify sugars in the microgram per litre range, it has not been possible to investigate the grow th kinetics of Escherichia coli in chemostat culture. Using an HPLC method able to determine steady-state concentrations of reducing sugars, we previo usly have shown that the Monod model adequately describes glucose-limited g rowth of E. coli ML30. This has not been confirmed for any other sugar. The refore, we carried out a similar study with galactose and found steady-stat e concentrations between 18 and 840 mu g.L-1 for dilution rates between 0.2 and 0.8.h(-1), respectively. With these data the parameters of several mod els giving the specific growth rate as a function of the substrate concentr ation were estimated by nonlinear parameter estimation, and subsequently, t he models were evaluated statistically. From all equations tested, the Mono d model described the data best. The parameters for galactose utilisation w ere mu(max) = 0.75.h(-1) and K-s = 67 mu g.L-1. The results indicated that accurate K-s values can be estimated from a limited set of steady-state dat a when employing mu(max) measured during balanced growth in batch culture. This simplified procedure was applied for maltose, ribose, and fructose. Fo r growth of E. coli with these sugars, mu(max) and K-s were for maltose 0.8 7.h(-1), 100 mu g.L-1; for ribose 0.57.h(-1), 132 mu g.L-1, and for fructos e 0.70.h(-1), 125 mu g.L-1.