| Abstract: | The growth kinetics of Candida lipolytica on glucose, acetate and hexadecane was studied in batch cultures at thiamine deficiency. The growth at the deceleration phase is of a linear character. The transition from the exponential phase to the linear one is accompanied with the accumulation of alpha-keto acids in the cultural broth, which is also observed in the stationary phase. The rate of acid production in the linear phase increases as the specific growth rate decreases, and reaches the maximum value in media with different carbon sources at mu = 0.01--0.06 h-1. Apparently, the deceleration of growth is due to a decrease in the activity of a thiamine-dependent enzyme (pyruvate dehydrogenase, alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase or transketolase) which is a limiting point of biosynthetic processes. Here, a linear growth is determined by the constant activity of this enzyme per unit volume of the cultural broth which, in turn, depends on the constant concentration of the coenzyme, thiamine diphosphate, in the same volume. |
