Effect of temperature on growth characteristics of Bacillus cereus TZ415

The effect of temperature on the maximal specific growth rate was studied i n Bacillus cereus between 5 and 40 degrees C cultivated in courgette broth and rich medium (J broth). B. cereus grown from 5 to 38 degrees C in rich m edium. No growth was observed in courgette broth below 10 degrees C. The Ar rhenius plot was fitted from experimental data of B. cereus grown in rich m edium and at regulated pH, oxygen and temperature. Two domains which are se parated by a critical temperature around 13 degrees C can be distinguished with regard to temperature dependence of maximal specific growth rate. Over the cold domain from 5 to 13 degrees C, the temperature characteristic was 2.6 fold higher than over the sub-optimal domain from 13 to 38 degrees C s uggesting that the growth temperature regulates several metabolic pathways. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.