Turbidostat

A turbidostat is a continuous culture device, similar to a chemostat or an auxostat, which has feedback between the turbidity of the culture vessel and the dilution ratecite journal |author=Bryson V, Szybalski W |journal=Science |pmid=14950177 |year=1952 |volume=18 |issue=115 |pages=45–51 |title=Microbial selection |doi=10.1126/science.116.3003.45] cite journal |title =New Type of Turbidostat with Intermittent Determination of Cell Density Outside the Culture Vessel |author=Sorgeloos P, Van Outryve E,Persoone G, Cattoir-Reynaerts A |journal=Applied and Environmental Microbiology |year=1976 |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=327–331] . The theoretical relationship between growth in a chemostat and growth in a turbidostat is somewhat complex, in part because it is similar. A chemostat technically has a fixed volume and flow rate - thus a fixed dilution rate. When the cells are uniform and at equilibrium, operation of a chemostat and turbidostat should be identical. It is only when classical chemostat assumptions are violated (for instance, out of equilibrium; or the cells are mutating) that a turbidostat is functionally different. One case may be while cells are growing at their maximum growth rate, in which case it is difficult to set a chemostat to the appropriate constant dilution ratecite journal |title=The Present Status and Future Prospect of the Turbidostat |author=Watson TG |journal=Journal of Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=229–243 |year=1972 |doi=10.1002/jctb.5020220206] .

While most turbidostats use a spectrophotometer/turbidometer to measure the optical density for control purposes, there exist other options, such as electrical conductivity cite journal |title=The Permittistat: A novel type of turbidostat |author=Markx GH, Davey CL, Kell DB |journal=Journal of General Microbiology |volume=137 |issue=4 |pages=735–743 |year=1991] .

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