Anaerobic starvation survival of marine bacteria

Starvation affects marine bacteria also under anaerobic conditions. Some basic data obtained for anaerobic starvation survival of a fermentative and a sulfaterespiring strain indicate substantial differences. The fermentative strain, Listonella (= Vibrio) anguillarum, responded to, nutrient depletion with rapid reduction of their cell size (dwarfing) and decline of viable cell counts by three orders of magnitude. The sulfate-respiring Desulfovibrio vulgaris showed only minor reductions of the cell sizes and no loss of viability. Whereas a drastic decline of cellular protein concentrations in this strain indicated strong endogeneous respiration, starved cells of the fermenting Vibrio sp. showed increasing levels of protein after an initial decrease