The objective of this work is to develop a mathematical model for evaluating the effect of temperature on the rate of microbial growth. The new mathematical model is derived by combination and modification of the Arrhenius equation and the Eyring-Polanyi transition theory. The new model, suitable for both suboptimal and the entire growth temperature ranges, was validated using a collection of 2...

There is increasing evidence that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play essential roles in communication and competition between soil microorganisms. Here we assessed volatile-mediated interactions of a synthetic microbial community in a model system that mimics the natural conditions in the heterogeneous soil environment along the rhizosphere. Phylogenetic different soil bacterial isolates (B...

Controlling microbial growth in artificial diets is a key component in the rearing of laboratory insects. In this study an antimicrobial agent, Diet Antimicrobial Agent (DAA), was tested for its ability to suppress microbial growth on a range of different diets, and for its effect on larval and pupal performance of individuals from two different strains of Heliothis virescens Fabricus (Lepidopt...

From the last few years, the inclusion of microbial phytase in poultry diets has increased significantly, mainly in response to heightened concerns over phosphorus pollution of the environment and as cheaper means to make phosphorus available to birds from phytate. Phytate is the major form of phosphorus, abundantly found in cereal grains, beans and oilseed meals used in poultry diet but the mo...

Capturing microbial growth on a macroscopic scale is of great importance to further our understanding of microbial life. However, methods for imaging microbial life on a scale of millimeters to centimeters are often limited by designs that have poor environmental control, resulting in dehydration of the agar plate within just a few days. Here, we created MOCHA (microbial chamber), a simple but ...

SHIMMER (Soil biogeocHemIcal Model for Microbial Ecosystem Response) is a new numerical modelling framework designed to simulate microbial dynamics and biogeochemical cycling during initial ecosystem development in glacier forefield soils. However, it is also transferable to other extreme ecosystem types (such as desert soils or the surface of glaciers). The rationale for model development aris...

Microbial testing performed in support of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical production falls into three main categories: detection (qualitative), enumeration (quantitative), and characterization/identification. Traditional microbiological methods listed in the compendia and discussed by using the conventional growth-based techniques, which are labor intensive and time consuming. In general, ...

Microbial population growth is typically measured when cells can be directly observed, or when death is rare. However, neither of these conditions hold for the mammalian gut microbiota, and, therefore, standard approaches cannot accurately measure the growth dynamics of this community. Here we introduce a new method (distributed cell division counting, DCDC) that uses the accurate segregation a...