Mass culture of the protozoa Colpoda steinii

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Growth of the ciliate, Colpoda steinii, was studied in shake flasks, 30‐l., stirred jars, and a conventional 50‐gal. stainless‐steel fermentor. This organism was growth with either washed or unwashed Escherichia coli cells as the sole food source. Generation times of 3–4 hr. were obtained at 30°C. With average yields of 78% (0.78 g. of protozoa/g. of bacteria). In a 100‐l. fermentation, a dry weight concentration of 12.5 g./l. (1.04 × 107 protozoa/ml.) was reached by means of periodic addition of E. coli paste. The influence of bacterial concentration on the growth rate of the protozoa was also investigated. It was found that this relationship could be represented by a Michaelis‐Menten equation with a maximum specific growth rate of 0.23 hr. −1 (3‐hr. generation time) and a bacterial concentration for half‐maximum growth rate of 6.0 mg. (dry wt.)/l.

This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit: