Modeling interactions of Clostridium cadaveris and Clostridium sporogenes in anaerobic acidogenesis of glucose and peptone

Abstract

This study focuses on developing a mathematical model to assess interaction among acidogenic bacteria during the anaerobic degradation of two substrates. Clostridium cadaveris and Clostridium sporogenes were cultured in various combinations with glucose and peptone. Parameter estimates are given for both conventional Monod parameters from single substrate-single species cultures and sum kinetics with interaction parameters obtained from dual substrate-single species cultures. The presence of multiple substrates led to both inhibitory and enhancing effects on biodegradation rates for dual substrates compared to single substrate cultures. A new model of interspecies interaction was developed within the framework of Lotka-Volterra incorporating substrate interaction parameters, with a focus on accuracy, realism, simplicity, and biological significance. The model demonstrated competitive interaction for resource sharing and the additional non-linearity parameter eliminated the constraint of the linear relationship between growth rate and population density.

Keywords: Clostridium cadaveris; Clostridium sporogenes; Interspecies interaction; Mathematical modeling; Mixed substrate.