KINETICS OF

MICROBIAL
GROWTH
DR. OJEWUMI M.E
 Introduction
Microbial growth can be defined as an
orderly increase in cellular components,
resulting in cell enlargement and leading
to cell division.

Cells grow until some component is

exhausted or until the environment
changes so as to inhibit growth.

A microbiological culture, or microbial

culture, is a method of multiplying
microbial organisms by letting them
reproduce in predetermined culture media
under controlled laboratory conditions.

Microbial Cultures are used to determine

the type of organism, its abundance in the
the sample being tested, or both.
 Microbial Culturing
Culture system contain a limited amount of nutrient, which is
inoculated with the microorganism

They are usually grown in petri dishes of different sizes that have a
thin layer of agar based growth medium.

After inoculation, the plates are then incubated at the best

temperature for growing the selected bacteria (37deg)

Liquid culturing can also be used. Here, the desired bacteria are
suspended in liquid broth, a nutrient medium. The experimenter
then inoculates the liquid broth with bacteria and lets it grow
overnight (they may use a shaker for uniform growth).
 Types of Microbial Culturing

Batch Culture: A batch culture is a closed system in

which no more nutrients are added after the inoculation of the growth
medium (broth).

It is an operational technique in biotechnological processes where one

or more nutrients (substrates) are fed (supplied) to the bioreactor
during cultivation and in which the product(s) remain in the bioreactor
until the end of the run.
 Types of Microbial Culturing

Continuous Culture: This, unlike the batch culture, is

an open system.

Nutrients are supplied to cells at a constant rate and an equal volume of

cell culture is removed in order to maintain the volume in the reactor
 Microbial Growth
Microbial growth is the asexual reproduction or cell division of a
bacterium into two daughter cells in a process called binary fission.

Each time a cell divides is called Generation and the time taken for the
cell to divide is refereed to as the Generation time or doubling time.

Microbial growth kinetics show the relationship between the specific

growth rate () of a microbial population and the substrate
concentration (s).

Microbial Growth Kinetics can be grouped into:

Batch Growth Kinetics: for the batch culture system

Continuous Growth Kinetics for the continuous culture system

 Growth Curve of a Batch
Culture
During batch fermentation the population of microorganisms goes
through several distinct growth phases :

Lag Phase
Exponential of Log phase
Stationary Phase
Death Phase
Therefore the rate of growth is dependent on the biomass conc. i.e
catalyst, that is present any given time. This can be described as :
Rate of change of biomass : dX/dt = X ..1
X = conc. of biomass (g/ L)
= Specific growth rate (per hr)
T = time (hr) (back to d note)
Growth Curve of a Batch Culture
 Lag Phase
Time of adaptation of cell to the environment or medium
(reorganization of micro molecular constituents).
Length of lag phase may vary (depend on specific circumstances).
Shorter lag time is recommended for industry and can be achieved
by using suitable inoculum (active or not) and environmental
condition.
It represents the physico-chemical equilibrium between
microorganism and environment
No growth occurs
Typical effects:
Low cell number / cell concentration.
No changes in substrate pH.
No changes in substrate concentration.
No product formation.
 Exponential Phase[log]
Illustrate by a linear line of the plot of log cell mass vs time.

During this phase, a growth at steady state where specific growth rate, is fixed.

Number of bacteria logarimatically increases (by the end cells have adapted to
the new conditions of growth)

Cell growth at maximum attainable rate (Growth rate remains constant)

Typical effects in log phase:

Rapid increase in cell concentration.

Rapid changes in substrate pH.
Substrate concentration decreased.
Product formation starts.
Stationary Phase{Resting phase}
Starts when the growth rate begins to decrease
Nutrients have been used (finished), (limited nutrients)
Accumulation of product that inhibit the growth of the inoculum.
Growth rate becomes zero and cells stop dividing.
At equilibrium growth rate = death rate
Population achieves its maximum size
Typical effects:
Microbial deaths balance production of new cells, cell mass
may be constant.
The number of viable cell decreased, lysis cell may occur so the
biomass will decreased .
 Death Phase
No. of non-viable bacterial cells exceeds that of viable cells.
Energy reserve of the cells is exhausted
A decline in cells number occurs
Exponential decreases in the number of living individuals is often
observed
Typical effects:
Substrate depletion
Rapid decline in cell numbers / biomass concentration.
Substrate concentration becomes zero
 Advantages of Batch
Culturing
Versatile because it can be used for different reactions
every day.

Lower capital investment.

It is safe because it can be properly sterilized.

Little risk of infection or strain mutation

Complete conversion of substrate is possible

 Disadvantages of Batch
Culturing
High labor cost: skilled labor is required

Much idle time: Sterilization, growth of inoculum,

cleaning after the fermentation

Safety problems: when filling, emptying, cleaning

 Application of Batch
Culturing
Products that must be produced with minimal risk of
contamination or organism mutation.

Operations in which only small amounts of product are

produced.