[Features of solid materials' colonization by pure and mixed cultures of methanotrophs]

The process of colonization of hydrophilic (glass) and hydrophobic (polysterene) carriers by pure cultures of methanotrophs Methylocystis parvus UCM B-3490T, Methylococcus capsulatus UCM B-3030, as well as by their cultures mixed with Bacillus megaterium UCM B 5723T and Pseudomonas putida VKPM B-4188 under the conditions efficient for methanotrophic bacteria. M. parvus demonstrated the highest intensity of this process on the above carriers owing to high hydrophobic cell surface. Both methanotrophs colonized the glass surface more quickly with formation of microcolonies on carriers after 6 days of incubation in pure and mixed cultures with B. megaterium. The number of bacilli on these carriers quickly decreased. In the mixed cultures with P. putida the glass and polysterene colonization intensity decreased, while the amount of pseudomonas on carriers increased.