Premium
Growth inhibitory and lethal effects of ethanol on Escherichia coli
Author(s) -
Sawada Tatsuro,
Nakamura Yoshitoshi
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.260290611
Subject(s) - ethanol , exponential growth , escherichia coli , growth rate , chemistry , biochemistry , kinetics , chromatography , yield (engineering) , biology , inhibitory postsynaptic potential , materials science , mathematical analysis , physics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , metallurgy , gene
The growth inhibitory and lethal effects of ethanol on Escherichia coli BB were investigated in batch cultures, by measuring total cell number, viable cell number, and cell mass concentration. Ethanol below ca. 50 g/L allowed exponential growth but depressed the specific growth rate. The effect of ethanol on the specific growth rate appeared to follow noncompetitive inhibition kinetics with apparently cooperative binding with a Hill coefficient of 2.5. The Hill coefficient and the inhibition constant were temperature independent over the range tested. Ethanol at 30 g/L decreased the growth yield. Ethanol enhanced the specific death rate in an experimental way. Stationary cell populations were more resistant than exponential ones but the degree of enhancement by ethanol was the same in both populations. Isopropanol and propanol also enhanced the specific death rate exponentially and the degree of enhancement was correlatedwith their membrane–buffer partition coefficients.