Ref ID : 984
Colin R. Curds and A. Cockburn; Continuous monoxenic culture of Tetrahymena pyriformis. J.Gen.Microbiol. 66:95-108, 1971
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A two-stage continuous culture apparatus was used to study the growth and feeding kinetics of the ciliated protozoon Tetrahymena pyriformis GL. The food organism, the bacterium Klebsiella aerogenes, was grown in the first stage using sucrose as the limiting nutrient to establish steady-state populations. By pumping some of this culture to a second fermentor which contained T. pyriformis a continuous supply of K. aerogenes was made available for predation. In the early stages after inoculation the ciliates were few in numbers but large in size, but over a period of a week or two the ciliate cells became smaller and more numerous. The feeding rate of Tetrahymena was found to be dependent upon size and growth rate. The kinetics of feeding and growth were related to the mean volume of the ciliate which increased with dilution rate. It was possible to grow Tetrahymena pyriformis in continuous culture at a rate of 0.38 hr-1 and the maximum specific growth rate was estimated to be 0.43 hr-1, which is almost twice that obtained from batch culture studies. The yield constant of Tetrahymena was 0.54.