Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Development of Sulfidogenic Sludge from Marine Sediments and Trichloroethylene Reduction in an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor
Published on: October 15, 2015
Acetate inhibition of methanogenic, syntrophic benzoate degradation
1Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences and of Microbiology and Public Health, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824.
Abstract:
Acetate inhibited benzoate degradation by a syntrophic coculture of an anaerobic benzoate degrader (strain BZ-2) and Methanospirillum strain PM-1; the apparent K(i) for acetate was approximately 40 mM. The addition of acetate resulted in a decrease in the hydrogen concentration in the coculture, indicating that phenomena related to interspecies hydrogen transfer affected this value and that the effect of acetate on the benzoate-degrading partner was probably greater than the apparent K(i) for the coculture suggests.
Related Concept Videos
Reactions at the Benzylic Position: Oxidation and Reduction
Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Sulfonation of Benzene
meta-Directing Deactivators: –NO2, –CN, –CHO, –⁠CO2R, –COR, –CO2H
Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution: Elimination–Addition
Metabolism of Chemolithotrophs
Microbes and Methanogenesis

