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. 1979 Mar;37(3):531–536. doi: 10.1128/aem.37.3.531-536.1979

Comparison of Substrate Affinities Among Several Rumen Bacteria: a Possible Determinant of Rumen Bacterial Competition

James B Russell 1,, R L Baldwin 1
PMCID: PMC243250  PMID: 16345358

Abstract

Five rumen bacteria, Selenomonas ruminantium, Bacteroides ruminicola, Megasphaera elsdenii, Streptococcus bovis, and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens were grown in continuous culture. Estimates of substrate affinities were derived from Lineweaver-Burk plots of dilution rate versus substrate concentration. Each bacterium was grown on at least four of the six substrates: glucose, maltose, sucrose, cellobiose, xylose, and lactate. Wide variations in substrate affinities were seen among the substrates utilized by a species and among species for the same substrate. These wide differences indicate that substrate affinity may be a significant determinant of bacterial competition in the rumen where soluble substrate concentrations are often low. Growth of these bacteria in continuous culture did not always follow typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Inflated theoretical maximum growth rates and non-linear Lineweaver-Burk plots were sometimes seen. Maintenance energy expenditures and limitation of growth rate by factors other than substrate concentration (i.e., protein synthesis) are discussed as possible determinants of these deviations.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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