Simulating the contribution of coaggregation to interspecies hydrogen fluxes in syntrophic methanogenic consortia

Abstract

A simple model (termed the syntrophy model) for simulating the contribution of coaggregation to interspecies hydrogen fluxes between syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea is described. We applied it to analyzing partially aggregated syntrophic cocultures with various substrates, revealing that large fractions of hydrogen molecules were fluxed in aggregates.

FIG. 1.

Determination of interspecies distances for dispersed cells and aggregated cells in a coculture of strains SI and ΔH. (A) A representative phase-contrast micrograph showing aggregates and dispersed cells. Arrows indicate an interspecies distance between dispersed cells. Bar, 20 μm. (B) A representative cross-section TEM image of aggregated cells showing parameters in equation 11 for determining a d_agg value. Bar, 500 nm.