Growth and anthocyanin production by carrot suspension cultures grown under chemostat conditions with phosphate as the limiting nutrient

Abstract

Abstract Chemostat cultures of carrot suspension cultures, where growth was limited by the concentration of phosphate in the input medium, were achieved by replacing a fixed proportion of the culture with fresh medium at daily intervals. In the range 0.05–0.30m M phosphate in the input medium and at a specific growth rate of 0.357 days −1 , steady‐state culture density but not anthocyanin in the cells was strictly proportional to the input phosphate concentration with no intercept. At a phosphate concentration of 0.10m M and growth rates from 0.105 to 0.430 days −1 , the steady‐state culture density could not be described by Monod's model of chemostat cultures, but could be described by Nyholm's model. The steady‐state levels of anthocyanin were not strictly proportional to the steady‐state biomass under all conditions, showing that anthocyanin production is not completely growth associated.