“…Bacteria were grown and maintained on Columbia Agar plates (provided by the Institute for Microbiology and Hygiene, University Medical Center Regensburg, Germany) under anaerobic conditions (80% N 2 , 10% CO 2 , 10% H 2 ; microincubator MI23NK, SCHOLZEN Microbiology Systems, St. Margrethen, Switzerland). As a basal liquid medium, the modified Fluid Universal Medium (mFUM) was employed, supplemented with 67 mmol/L Sørensen's buffer (pH 7.2) and containing carbohydrate (0.15% (w/v) glucose and 0.15% (w/v) sucrose), as described earlier (Cieplik et al., ; Gmür & Guggenheim, ; Guggenheim, Giertsen, Schüpbach, & Shapiro, ). For the preparation of planktonic cultures, colonies were picked, suspended in 5 ml of mFUM with 0.5 ml fetal bovine serum (FBS; Gibco ® life technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and cultured over‐night under anaerobic conditions in order to obtain bacteria in the stationary phase of growth.…”