Fig. 4

Characteristics of growth parameters of Paracoccus spp. producing carotenoids. Time-course profiles of growth (a, b), pH (c, d) and sCOD (e, f) in cultures of P. aminophilus CRT1 (a, c, e) and P. kondratievae CRT2 (b, d, f) grown on various media: LB, FGD, FGD/molasses (1%), FGD/methanol (0.5%), M9, M9/molasses (1%) and M9/methanol (0.5%). FGD–flue gas desulfurization effluent, LB–Lysogeny Broth. CFU mL⁻¹–colony-forming units per milliliter, sCOD–soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand. All results are average of triplicate of three series of independent experiments. Standard deviations are shown in Additional file 2: (Table S5)