Background: Mixed culture enrichments have been used frequently for biohydrogen production from different feedstock. In spite of the several advantages offered by those cultures, they suffer poor H2 yield. Constructing defined co-cultures of known H2 producers may offer a better performance than mixed-population enrichments, while overcoming some of the limitations of pure cultures based on synergies among the microorganisms involved.
Results: The extreme thermophiles Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus DSM 8903 and C. kristjanssonii DSM 12137 were combined in a co-culture for H2 production from glucose and xylose in a continuous-flow stirred tank reactor. The co-culture exhibited a remarkable stability over a period of 70 days under carbon-sufficient conditions, with both strains coexisting in the system at steady states of different dilution rates, as revealed by species-specific quantitative PCR assays. The two strains retained their ability to stably coexist in the reactor even when glucose was used as the sole growth-limiting substrate. Furthermore, H2 yields on glucose exceeded those of either organism alone under the same conditions, alluding to a synergistic effect of the two strains on H2 production. A maximum H2 yield of 3.7 mol (mol glucose)(-1) was obtained by the co-culture at a dilution rate of 0.06 h(-1); a higher yield than that reported for any mixed culture to date. A reproducible pattern of population dynamics was observed in the co-culture under both carbon and non-carbon limited conditions, with C. kristjanssonii outgrowing C. saccharolyticus during the batch start-up phase and prevailing at higher dilution rates. A basic continuous culture model assuming the ability of C. saccharolyticus to enhance the growth of C. kristjanssonii could mimic the pattern of population dynamics observed experimentally and provide clues to the nature of interaction between the two strains. As a proof, the cell-free growth supernatant of C. saccharolyticus was found able to enhance the growth of C. kristjanssonii in batch culture through shortening its lag phase and increasing its maximum biomass concentration by ca. 18%.
Conclusions: This study provides experimental evidence on the stable coexistence of two closely related organisms isolated from geographically-distant habitats under continuous operation conditions, with the production of H2 at high yields. An interspecies interaction is proposed as the reason behind the remarkable ability of the two Caldicellulosiruptor strains to coexist in the system rather than only competing for the growth-limiting substrate.