Extracellular sulfide was continuously recorded directly in the flasks using a system of sulfide-specific ion-selective chalcogenide XC-S2-001 (operating pH range 6–12) (Sensor Systems Company, St. Petersburg, Russia) and reference electrodes and a computer pH/ion meter cpX-2 (IBP, Pushchino, Russia).
Changes in levels of extracellular K+ were registered using a system of K+-selective (ELIS-121K) and reference electrodes. For a sensitive determination of K+ during E. coli growth in M9 and M9 + CA + cystine media, potassium concentration was reduced to 0.2 mM. Synchronous processing of all primary data from the sensor system was carried out using the RS-232 and Modbus protocols and the Advantech OPC Server v3.0 software package.