Oxygen availability and growth of Escherichia coli W3110: Dynamic responses to limitation and starvation

It is well known that oxygen availability can have a profound effect upon t he growth of an Escherichia coli culture with respect to acetate excretion or lower product yield. The current investigation seeks to determine the dy namic responses of steady state continuous cultures to abrupt changes in th e oxygen supply. This should yield information regarding the behaviour of s uch cells as they circulate through areas of low and high oxygen availabili ty in an industrial-scale bioreactor. It was found that a decoupling of cat abolism and anabolism occurred following sudden switches both from and to o xygen limitation. It also appeared that the imposed growth rate had an effe ct on the speed of recovery of the system following any such changes.