Contaminant concentration versus flow velocity: drivers of biodegradation and microbial growth in groundwater model systems

Aromatic hydrocarbons belong to the most abundant contaminants in groundwater systems. They can serve as carbon and energy source for a multitude of indigenous microorganisms. Predictions of contaminant biodegradation and microbial growth in contaminated aquifers are often vague because the parameters of microbial activity in the mathematical models used for predictions are typically derived from batch experiments, which don’t represent conditions in the field. In order to improve our understanding of key drivers of natural attenuation and the accuracy of predictive models, we conducted comparative experiments in batch and sediment flow-through systems with varying concentrations of contaminant in the inflow and flow velocities applying the aerobic Pseudomonas putida strain F1 and the denitrifying Aromatoleum aromaticum strain EbN1. We followed toluene degradation and bacterial growth by measuring toluene and oxygen concentrations and by direct cell counts. In the sediment columns, the total amount of toluene degraded by P. putida F1 increased with increasing source concentration and flow velocity, while toluene removal efficiency gradually decreased. Results point at mass transfer limitation being an important process controlling toluene biodegradation that cannot be assessed with batch experiments. We also observed a decrease in the maximum specific growth rate with increasing source concentration and flow velocity. At low toluene concentrations, the efficiencies in carbon assimilation within the flow-through systems exceeded those in the batch systems. In all column experiments the number of attached cells plateaued after an initial growth phase indicating a specific “carrying capacity” depending on contaminant concentration and flow velocity. Moreover, in all cases, cells attached to the sediment dominated over those in suspension, and toluene degradation was performed practically by attached cells only. The observed effects of varying contaminant inflow concentration and flow velocity on biodegradation could be captured by a reactive-transport model. By monitoring both attached and suspended cells we could quantify the release of new-grown cells from the sediments to the mobile aqueous phase. Studying flow velocity and contaminant concentrations as key drivers of contaminant transformation in sediment flow-through microcosms improves our system understanding and eventually the prediction of microbial biodegradation at contaminated sites.

Enhanced lipid accumulation of photoautotrophic microalgae by high-dose CO2 mimics a heterotrophic characterization

Microalgae possess higher photosynthetic efficiency and accumulate more neutral lipids when supplied with high-dose CO2. However, the nature of lipid accumulation under conditions of elevated CO2 has not been fully elucidated so far. We now revealed that the enhanced lipid accumulation of Chlorella in high-dose CO2 was as efficient as under heterotrophic conditions and this may be attributed to the driving of enlarged carbon source. Both photoautotrophic and heterotrophic cultures were established by using Chlorella sorokiniana CS-1. A series of changes in the carbon fixation, lipid accumulation, energy conversion, and carbon-lipid conversion under high-dose CO2 (1-10%) treatment were characterized subsequently. The daily carbon fixation rate of C. sorokiniana LS-2 in 10% CO2 aeration was significantly increased compared with air CO2. Correspondingly, double oil content (28%) was observed in 10% CO2 aeration, close to 32.3% produced under heterotrophic conditions. In addition, with 10% CO2 aeration, the overall energy yield (Ψ) in Chlorella reached 12.4 from 7.3% (with air aeration) because of the enhanced daily carbon fixation rates. This treatment also improved the energetic lipid yield (Ylipid/Es) with 4.7-fold, tending to the heterotrophic parameters. More significantly, 2.2 times of carbon-lipid conversion efficiency (ηClipid/Ctotal, 42.4%) was observed in 10% CO2 aeration, towards to 53.7% in heterotrophic cultures, suggesting that more fixed carbon might flow into lipid synthesis under both 10% CO2 aeration and heterotrophic conditions. Taken together, all our evidence showed that 10% CO2 may push photoautotrophic Chlorella to display heterotrophic-like efficiency at least in lipid production. It might bring us an efficient model of lipid production based on microalgal cells with high-dose CO2, which is essential to sustain biodiesel production at large scales.

Physiological, biomass elemental composition and proteomic analyses of Escherichia coli ammonium-limited chemostat growth, and comparison with iron- and glucose-limited chemostat growth

Escherichia coli physiological, biomass elemental composition and proteome acclimations to ammonium-limited chemostat growth were measured at four levels of nutrient scarcity controlled via chemostat dilution rate. These data were compared with published iron- and glucose-limited growth data collected from the same strain and at the same dilution rates to quantify general and nutrient-specific responses. Severe nutrient scarcity resulted in an overflow metabolism with differing organic byproduct profiles based on limiting nutrient and dilution rate. Ammonium-limited cultures secreted up to 35% of the metabolized glucose carbon as organic byproducts with acetate representing the largest fraction; in comparison, iron-limited cultures secreted up to 70 % of the metabolized glucose carbon as lactate, and glucose-limited cultures secreted up to 4% of the metabolized glucose carbon as formate. Biomass elemental composition differed with nutrient limitation; biomass from ammonium-limited cultures had a lower nitrogen content than biomass from either iron- or glucose-limited cultures. Proteomic analysis of central metabolism enzymes revealed that ammonium- and iron-limited cultures had a lower abundance of key tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle enzymes and higher abundance of key glycolysis enzymes compared with glucose-limited cultures. The overall results are largely consistent with cellular economics concepts, including metabolic tradeoff theory where the limiting nutrient is invested into essential pathways such as glycolysis instead of higher ATP-yielding, but non-essential, pathways such as the TCA cycle. The data provide a detailed insight into ecologically competitive metabolic strategies selected by evolution, templates for controlling metabolism for bioprocesses and a comprehensive dataset for validating in silico representations of metabolism.

What does calorimetry and thermodynamics of living cells tell us?

This article presents and compares several thermodynamic methods for the quantitative interpretation of data from calorimetric measurements. Heat generation and absorption are universal features of microbial growth and product formation as well as of cell cultures from animals, plants and insects. The heat production rate reflects metabolic changes in real time and is measurable on-line. The detection limit of commercially available calorimetric instruments can be low enough to measure the heat of 100,000 aerobically growing bacteria or of 100 myocardial cells. Heat can be monitored in reaction vessels ranging from a few nanoliters up to many cubic meters. Most important the heat flux measurement does not interfere with the biological process under investigation. The practical advantages of calorimetry include the waiver of labeling and reactants. It is further possible to assemble the thermal transducer in a protected way that reduces aging and thereby signal drifts. Calorimetry works with optically opaque solutions. All of these advantages make calorimetry an interesting method for many applications in medicine, environmental sciences, ecology, biochemistry and biotechnology, just to mention a few. However, in many cases the heat signal is merely used to monitor biological processes but only rarely to quantitatively interpret the data. Therefore, a significant proportion of the information potential of calorimetry remains unutilized. To fill this information gap and to motivate the reader using the full information potential of calorimetry, various methods for quantitative data interpretations are presented, evaluated and compared with each other. Possible errors of interpretation and limitations of quantitative data analysis are also discussed.

Calculation of the heat of growth of Escherichia coli K-12 on succinic acid

Using data from the literature, a method is adopted for determining the empirical composition and the unit carbon formula for dried Escherichia coli K-12 cells by summing the quantities of C, H, O, N, P, and S in each of the major classes of macromolecular substances comprising the cellular biomass. With these data and the molar growth yield of cells on succinic acid, equations are written representing the anabolism and catabolism of E. coli K-12 on this quantity of substrate. The enthalpy change accompanying catabolism can be calculated directly using standard enthalpies of formation because there is no term representing cellular substance. The enthalpy change accompanying anabolism is calculated to be very small or zero using microcalorimetric and other data from which the enthalpy of formation of a unit quantity of living cellular substance can be obtained. This indicates that the net enthalpy change accompanying the growth process (anabolism plus catabolism) is the same as that calculated for catabolism alone, in agreement with the same conclusion by several investigators using direct microcalorimetry. The method described here of determining the unit carbon formula and the quantity of ash remaining after cellular combustion is compared to that conventionally used in which cellular P and S is considered either to be negligible or to be a part of the ash. It is concluded that equations representing anabolism and the growth process can be written more accurately using the presently described method, leading to more accurate thermodynamic calculations.

Metabolism of H2-CO2, methanol, and glucose by Butyribacterium methylotrophicum

The fermentative metabolism of Butyribacterium methylotrophicum grown on either H2-CO2, methanol, glucose, or CO is described. The following reaction stoichiometries were obtained: 1.00 H2 + 0.52 CO2 leads to 0.22 acetate + 0.06 cell C; 1 methanol + 0.18 CO2 + 0.01 acetate leads to 0.24 butyrate + 0.29 cell C; and 1.00 glucose leads to 0.31 CO2 + 1.59 acetate + 0.21 butyrate + 0.13 H2 + 1.58 cell C. Cell yields of 1.7 g (dry weight) per mol of H2, 8.2 g (dry weight) per mol of methanol, 42.7 g (dry weight) per mol of glucose, and 3.0 g (dry weight) per mol of CO were obtained from linear plots of cell synthesis and substrate consumption. Doubling times of 9.0, 9.0, and 3 to 4 h were observed during batch growth on H2-CO2, methanol, and glucose, respectively. Indicative of a growth factor limitation, glucose fermentation in defined medium displayed a lower cell synthesis efficiency than when yeast extract (0.05%) was present. B. methylotrophicum fermentation displayed atypically high substrate/cell carbon synthesis conversion ratios for an anaerobe, as greater than 24% of the carbon was assimilated into cells during growth on methanol or glucose. The data indicate that B. methylotrophicum conserves carbon-bound electrons during growth on single-carbon or multicarbon substrates.