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Vitamin B12 and Marine Ecology III. An experiment with a chemostat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

M. R. Droop
Affiliation:
The Marine Station, Millport, Scotland

Extract

A 250 ml. chemostat has been used to measure the parameters of vitamin B requirement in the chrysomonad Monochrysis lutheri.

The yield constant was ca. 0·25 × 10 cells/μμg., i.e. one-third of the figure previously measured in batch cultures.

The saturation constant lay between 2 and 6 μμ/ml., i.e. at least twenty times the figure indicated by previous batch culture measurements.

Internal inconsistencies in the chemostat's operation indicate the presence of factors not accounted for by theory.

It is argued that only factors analogous to the release of protein-bound vitamin into the medium could in principle account for all the discrepancies.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1966

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