Lactate metabolism in bioreactor-enriched gut microbes
The project aims to ecologically and physiologically profile the conversion of D- and L-lactate in the gut microbiome. DL-lactate-consuming microbes were enriched from a human-derived gut microbiome in chemostat bioreactors at pH 7.0, T = 37C, and an SRT of 4 d. From this culture, duplicate chemostats fed with exclusively D- or L-lactate were inoculated. After maintaining steady-state for >3 SRTs, D-lactate-fed reactors were switched to L-lactate and vice-versa.