ABSTRACT
Growth rate is not the only factor that will influence the ability of an inoculum to match the physiologies found in the real world. Complex culture media are generally employed as a means of quickly and conveniently generating high cell densities. Oxygen restriction will not cause stationary phase; rather, growth will proceed at a rate determined by the rate of dissolution of oxygen to the culture. This is in turn affected by, for example, flask shake rates, size, shape, and contents. Facultative anaerobes will often ferment particular carbon substrates rather than oxidize them, even if oxygen concentrations are relatively high. Oxygen-limited growth is difficult to define in batch culture and should therefore be discouraged if reproducibility of inocula is sought. Harvesting cells in their logarithmic phase of growth is convenient and can lead to reproducible performance of the inocula. Growth temperature affects the phospholipid composition of the cell envelopes and will markedly influence the activity of membrane-active biocides.
