A method to estimate the efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation and biomass yield from atp of a facultative anaerobe in continuous culture

In anaerobic culture, the ATP generation rate and the biomass yield from ATP (Y sub(ATP)) can be obtained. In aerobic and microaerobic cultures, the assessment of ATP generation rate is hindered by the fact that certain fundamental parameters cannot be measured directly. In particular, the efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation (the so-called P/O ratio) is not yet known with sufficient accuracy. A further complication arises from the fact that the parameter Y sub(ATP) is also usually unknown. A method is proposed to estimate the P/O ratio and Y sub(ATP) of a facultative anaerobe by simple ATP balance equations using data from a microaerobic continuous culture with different oxygen supply rates at a fixed dilution rate.