Growth Rate and Yield of a Methanotrophic Bacterium Methylosinus Trichosporium OB3b : I. Experimental Measurements

Abstract

The effect of culture medium copper availability on the specific growth rate(μ ) and carbon conversion efficiency (CCE) was sutided for an obligatory methanotroph Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b under various combinations of carbon and nitrogen sources. Methane or methanol was used as a carbon source, and nitrate or ammonium was used as a nitrogen source. Medium copper availability determined the intracellular location or kind of methane monooxygenase (MMO), cell-membrane (particulate or pMMO) when copper was present and cytoplasm (soluble or sMMO) when copper was deficient. When methane was used as a carbon source, copper-containing medium exhibited higher μ and CCE than copper-free medium regardless of the kind of nitrogen source. When methanol was used as a carbon source, however, the effect of copper disappeared. Ammonium gave the higher μ and CCE than nitrate for both methane and methanol. Those observation suggest that there exist an important difference in energy utilization efficiency for methane assimilation between sMMO and pMMO.