the cells grow in vanillate, 4-hydroxybenzoate, syringate, ferulate, p-coumarate, and 3-O-methylgallate, but not on vanillin and syringaldehyde. Maximum specific growth rates, uptake rates and yields on lignin model compounds by Microbacterium sp. RG1, overview. When strain is cultivated with 5 mM each of the aldehydes vanillin or syringaldehyde no growth is observed for more than 200 h