LIPID AS SOURCE OF CARBON SUBSTRATE IN FERMENTATION-A MIND OPENING EXPERIENCE

I remembered on one occasion, a research student carrying out nutritional studies for antibiotic fermentation using shake flask cultures. The experimental design looked simple enough whereby the organisms were grown with lipid as the source of carbon for the antibiotic fermentation.
The problem is the experiment was poorly carried out and serious erroneous conclusions were obtained from the experiment.
The research supervisor and the student failed to observe that:
1 Much of the loss in carbon in the media in the form of the lipid was not due to its utilization by the microorganisms, but ending sticking on the sides of the inner walls of the shake flask
2 Emulsifiers that were used to break the lipids into small globules for the ease of action to be metabolized by the microorganisms in fact contain citric acid. Citric acid as we know it is part of the TCA cycle and are preferably taken up and metabolized by the microorganisms compared to the longer chain hydrocarbon
Sad to say these observations were not taken into considerations and resulted in the wrong conclusions derived from the study!
IT IS A FACT THAT EVEN ERRONEOUS RESULTS WILL YIELD RESEARCH DATA!
It is therefore very important that before the start of any serious experiments studies and research must be done to ensure that the experiments are properly carried out. It is times like this where peer review and criticisms should be welcomed and the input into the experiment appreciated



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