Growth and Cultivation of micro-organisms

by

E. Börje Lindström

This learning object has been funded by the European Commissions FP6 BioMinE project

GrowthDefinition: • Growth implies that all building blocks of the cell

increases with the following consequences:

Growth Normally

 Increase in cell number

  

Multi cellular Uunicellularorganisms organisms

  

increases size increase number of organism of organisms

Mathematical representation

• The bacteria divide binary usually perpendicular to the length axis and thereby two new cells are produced

• For a unicellular bacterium the cell number increase exponentially with base 2 as seen in the table below:

• n = no. of doublings

• time for each doubling = g (min, hr)

• The following mathematical expression is then obtained:

Cell no. Exponential expression

Etc.

20

21

22

23

2n

Math. cont.Nt = N0 x 2n (1)

Where: • Nt = the cell number at time t• N0 = the cell number at t = 0 and • n represents the number of doublings (generations)

• if g = time for a generation and

• t = total time, then

Nt = N0 x 2n = N0 x 2t/g (2)

• set = 1/g -where is the specific growth rate constant;

- inserted in (2) gives

Math. cont.Nt = N0 x 2t • take the logarithm of equation (3),

which gives:

log Nt = log N0 + t x x log 2 (4) • in a semi-logarithmic graph this is a strait line

log Nt

t

slope = x log 2

CultivationCultivation is normally performed batch-wise or continuously.

• Batch cultivation

- the growth medium and the bacteria (inoculum) are added to the growth vessel once at the start of the experiment!

- any growth vessel can be used: shake flasks, stirred tank reactors etc.

- batch-wise cultivation is chosen to rapidly obtain growth data

-During batch cultivation of a bacterial culture you can have

four (4) growth phases as shown below:

Growth curve during batch cultivation

log Nt

t

Lag-phaseLog-phase

Stationary phase

Death phase

Properties of the growth phases

• Lag-phase:

• Log-phase:

- the temperature, etc.

- in bioleaching there is often no exponential phase due to that the energy source is a particle

- the cell devision is delayed due to how the inoculum has been treated

- the previous medium

- exponential growth

- as fast as the soluble nutrients permit

- the doubling time, g, can be determined here

Properties, cont.

• Death phase:

-due to some toxic substance excreted from the bacteria

• Stationary phase:

- dissolved oxygen for aerobic organisms

- growth is stopped due to changes in the medium

- an essential nutrient has ceased

- pH-changes due to end products

- an exponential curve

Quantitative methods for measuring bacterial growth

• The growth of the bacterial population can be followed either by the changes in number of cells or weight of cell mass.

• In the following table a comparison of a few methods are found.

Parameter MethodSensitiveness

(cells/ml)Note

Cell mass

(dry weight/ml)

Gravimeter 108 Direct method

Turbid meter (O.D.) 107 Indirect method

Chemical analysis (depending on the compound)

Indirect method

Microscopy 106

Viable count (V.C.)

1-10 Indirect methodCell number, viable

Direct methodCell number, total

Comments to the quantitative methods

• Some of the methods are noted as direct or indirect. The direct methods show the cell mass or cell number directly in the sample. In the indirect methods you need a standard curve comparing a direct and an indirect method.

• If e.g. during growth the same sample is measured by the direct method gravimeter and the indirect method turbid meter and those values are plotted in a diagram you will have a standard curve for use in later experiments.

Cel

l mas

s

(dry

wei

ght/

ml)

Turbid meter, (O.D.)

Comments, cont.• The method gravimeter uses ordinary balances after removal of the water content of the sample. Given a sample size of one ml and assuming that an average dry bacterium is weighing 10-12 g and that a ordinary balance can detect 10-4 g this means that you must have >108 bacteria per ml in the sample to be able to use weighing.

• The sensitivity given for any turbid meter e.g.ordinary spectrophotometers measuring optical density, is arbitrary.

• For microscopy the sensitivity value means that you have on average one cell in the smallest square on the special object glass used.

Depth

Grid in the bottom

Comments, cont.

In viable count you usually pore out 0.1 ml of the sample onto the surface of a nutrient agar plate. If you get one colony after incubation then you have had 10 bacteria per ml in the sample.

0.1 ml 1 ml

10 bact/ml 1 bact/ml

Nutrient agar plate

Balanced vs. Unbalanced growth• The growth of a bacterial culture is related to the composition of the medium.

• However, if the synthesis of one of the building blocks is stopped, the growth is terminated due to unbalanced growth, which often leads to death of the culture (see figure below).

• In a minimal medium the growth is slower than in a complex medium.

• If all the essential nutrients are freely available the growth is balanced, which means that all the building bocks are synthezised with the same speed (see figure below).

Time

Am

ount

Protein

RNA

DNA

Time

Am

ount

Protein

RNA

DNA

Balanced Unbalanced

Enrichment and isolationEnrichment:

• When a special bacterial species is nutritional favoured during cultivation that species will be enriched in the culture.

• A small sample of this culture is then transferred to new fresh medium of the same type and the cultivtion is continued.

This procedure is continued several times.

Isolation:• A small sample of the last enrichment culture is then spread on top of a agar plate with the same nutrient media as in the enrichment.

• Among those colonies appearing on the plate after proper incubation the wanted bacterial species will be. Testing these colonies will evetually result in the isolation.