Table 5. Relative abundance (% of total bacterial copy numbers) of the three selected bacterial species in each culture

	Incubation times (h)				SEM	p-values1)
	0	24	48	72		Linear	Quadratic	Cubic
Prevotella ruminicola
Ec	1.823a	7.477a	4.063a	4.370a	0.732	NS	0.024	0.018
AAFB	0.028b	0.004b	0.004b	0b	0.004	< 0.001	0.006	NS
Ec + AAFB	0.027b	10.927a	5.967a	4.617a	1.285	NS	0.001	0.008
Clostridium aminophilum
Ec (× 10−3)	1.96a	0.03ab	0.04a	0.11a	0.25	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.013
AAFB (× 10−5)	2.21b	0.54b	3.55b	1.80b	0.49	NS	NS	0.037
Ec + AAFB (× 10−5)	2.62b	7.91a	7.69a	14.6a	1.41	< 0.001	NS	NS
Peptostreptococcus anaerobius
Ec (× 10−4)	6.12a	0.76a	1.13	1.80a	0.69	< 0.001	< 0.001	NS
AAFB (× 10−5)	1.29b	3.59b	4.34	3.10c	0.66	NS	NS	NS
Ec + AAFB (× 10−5)	1.64b	5.41ab	7.00	11.3b	1.09	< 0.001	NS	NS

p-values were for the contrast of the relative abundance of each bacterial species over time.
Means within a row with different superscripts differ (p < 0.05).
Ec, Entodinium caudatum alone; AAFB, amino acid-fermenting bacterial consortium alone; NS, not significance (p > 0.05); Ec + AAFB, co-culture of both Ec and AAFB.