Mathematical description of competition between two and three bacterial species under dual substrate limitation in the chemostat: a comparison with experimental data.

A mathematical model is presented which describes the growth of two bacterial species in mixed chemostat cultures under dual substrate limitation. Competition experiments between a facultatively chemolithotrophic Thiobacillus and either a heterotroph or an obligately chemolithotrophic Thiobacillus served as an experimental model system [Gottschal, de Vries, and Kuenen, Archives of Microbiology, 121, 241-249 (1979)]. Furthermore, the introduction of Monod-type growth kinetics in the model allowed an assessment of the relative importance of the growth parameters for the outcome of the competition. In addition, it is shown how the results of the mathematical description of the two-membered mixed cultures can be used to predict the outcome of the competition between the three species competing for the two growth-limiting substrates acetate and thiosulfate in a three-membered mixed culture. In contrast to the experimental data of Gottschal, de Vries, and Kuenen it is predicted that two of the three species or only one of them (the "mixotroph") will survive in the culture. Within the framework of the proposed mathematical model, two possible explanations for the experimentally observed coexistence of three species are suggested: either the very slow dynamics of the system did not allow the attainment of a true steady state within the time scale of the present experiments or some parameters describing the mixed culture were extremely sensitive towards minor fluctuations in dilution rate. The results of the present mathematical model support the view that facultatively chemolithotrophic bacteria are able to survive under appropriate limiting mixed substrate conditions in the presence of more "specialized" heterotrophs and obligately chemolitotrophs, in spite of their relatively low specific growth rate.