File:MITiGEM2006growthdependentbananaodorgenerators.png

Stationary phase dependent banana odor production

To demonstrate growth phase dependent banana odor production, we compared the behavior of constitutive and stationary phase dependent banana odor generators (A and B, respectively). We measured isoamyl acetate concentrations of cultures of the constitutive and stationary phase banana odor generators at different culture cell densities (OD600nm) (C). As expected, the stationary phase banana odor generator produced very little isoamyl acetate at low cell densities but its isoamyl acetate production increased with cell density. By comparison, the constitutive banana odor generator produced more isoamyl acetate at lower cell densities than the stationary phase banana odor generator. To visually aid comparison of the two odor generators, an empirical fit to the data for each device is shown.