[Ratio of coryneform bacteria to the organic substance concentration]

The effect of various organic substances and their concentrations on growth was studied with 10 strains of coryneform bacteria belonging to different taxonomic groups. The dynamics of the cultural growth depended on the nature of a substrate, glucose or acetate. Arthrobacter globiformis 281, A. variabilis 289, Nocardia erythropolis 236, N. globerula 502, N. minima 311 and N. rhodochrous 435 had a higher growth rate on acetate than on glucose. A. pascens 284, Brevibacterium ammoniagenes 334, Corynebacterium aquaticum 459 and C. michiganense 302 grew in a medium with glucose but not in a medium with acetate. The dependence of the maximal specific growth rate on the initial concentration of a carbon source was characterized, for all of the cultures, by high threshold concentrations of substrates (0.05--0.02 g per litre) and high Ks values (0.1--1.5 g per litre) which varied depending on the culture and the substrate. The dependence mu max = f(Cs) varied among different cultures and obeyed the Mono's equation only for B. ammoniagenes 334, C. aquaticum 459 and C. michiganense 302. The results presented here are in agreement with the assumption that some coryneforms isolated from oligotrophic habitats may occupy the ecological niche of the dissipation microflora.