TABLE 4.

Degradation of hexadecane by strain AK-01 in the presence of unlimiting and limiting amounts of sulfate^a

Initial amt of sulfate (μmol)	Final amt of sulfate (μmol)	Sulfate loss (μmol)	Hexadecane loss (μmol)	% Loss of hexadecane
412 ± 5	333 ± 20	79 ± 20	6.6 ± 0.2	91%
27.6 ± 0.4	22.6 ± 0.2	5.0 ± 0.2	0.3 ± 0.3	4%

^aAmounts of sulfate were deemed unlimiting (412 μmol; 13.8 mM) or limiting (27.6 μmol; 0.92 mM) with respect to the expected sulfate loss determined by multiplying the initial amount of hexadecane (7.5 μmol) by the theoretical stoichiometric ratio of 12.25. Results are means of triplicates ± standard deviations.