An automatic,on-line glucose analyzer for feed-back control of fed-batch growth of Escherichia coli

Summary A computer-assisted on-line glucose analyzer was developed for feed-back control of cell growth. Using this system the glucose consumption rate for Escherichia coli was determined to be linear during batch culture at 0.37 g/hr. On-line feed-back control of glucose concentration at 1.5±0.5 g/L was used with fed-batch cultures to produce 31.2 g dry weight of E. coli cells/L in 12 h.     

Optimisation of L-lysine production byCorynebacterium sp in fed-batch cultures

Summary The influence of initial concentration of glucose from 60 to 233 g/l on the production of L-lysine byCorynebacterium sp was studied first in batch culture. The maximum conversion rate into L-lysine was obtained at 165 g/l and the best specific production rate for L-lysine was observed at 65 g/l of glucose. In fed-batch fermentations, better conversion and the specific production rates were obtained. Maintaining of a high glucose concentration in the fed-batch technique allowed a 54% increase of the L-lysine production compared to the batch culture.     

Growth rate control in fed-batch cultures of recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae producing hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg).

A recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae producing hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) exhibited growth-associated product formation. By controlling the medium feed rate, based on the calculated amount of medium required for 1 h, a constant specific growth rate was obtained in the range of 0.12-0.18 h-1. In order to prolong the exponential growth phase, the medium feed rate was increased exponentially. A fed-batch cultivation method based on the production kinetics of batch culture enhanced HBsAg production ten times more than in batch culture. The reason for the increase can be explained by the fact that the production of HBsAg is expressed as an exponential function of time when the specific growth rate is controlled to a constant value in growth-associated product formation kinetics. In the scale-up of this culture to 91, the specific growth rate could also be maintained constant and the HBsAg production trend was similar to that in a 1-1 culture. However, ethanol accumulation occurred at a late stage in fed-bach culture. Ethanol produced was not reutilized and inhibited further cell growth.     

Production of human leukocyte interferon inEscherichia coli by control of growth rate in fed-batch fermentation

Summary AnE. coli harboring a vector containing double promoters, a signal sequence, and interferon gene was used. By fitting the feed rate of growth-limiting nutrients to the precalculated demand of the microorganism on the basis of a specific growth rate of 0.1 h^–1, fed-batch fermentations were performed. A cell density of 26 g/L was achieved after 46 hrs cultivation at 30°C. The culture was induced by IPTG and produced 1x10⁹ IU/L of human leukocyte interferon.     

Fed-batch fermentation of glucose to acetate by an improved strain ofClostridium thermoaceticum

The fed-batch approach to the production of acetate from glucose by an improved strain ofClostridium thermoaceticum resulted in better performance than the batch fermentation, especially in media containing an excess (3X) of nutrients and trace salts. At pH 6.6, 46 g/l acetic acid was produced in 192 hours with 93% substrate utilization. In contrast, batch fermentation under similar conditions resulted in a maximum of 35 g/l acetic acid with less than 82% substrate utilization.     

Optimization of a cultivation process for recombinant protein production by Escherichia coli.

A single-stage fed-batch bioprocess for the production of a recombinant protein beta-galactosidase, by E. coli has been developed. The XL1-blue strain of E. coli which harbors a multi-number foreign plasmid PT was cultured in a reformulated medium. Critical medium components were selected and their respective concentrations were optimized with the Orthogonal Table method. An exponential substrate feeding schedule was used to maintain optimum conditions. Inhibition of growth and protein expression caused by excessive concentrations of glucose and acetate was investigated and subsequently minimized with an incremental nutrient feeding schedule which limited the specific growth rate of a culture. The program necessary to facilitate the control of substrate addition is fully described. This program has been used with a 2.5 l bioreactor and a commercially available software package for optimization without on-line or off-line measurement of optical density (OD), CO2, glucose or acetate. The optimized fed-batch process limited the acetate concentration to less than 20 mM; maintained an exponential growth phase for 50 h; and produced a cell density of 51 g l-1 dry cell weight (DCW) or 154 OD600 with a beta-galactosidase activity of 990 U ml-1.     

Fuzzy neural network for the control of high cell density cultivation of recombinant Escherichia coli

A five-layer fuzzy neural network (FNN) was developed for the control of fed-batch cultivation of recombinant Escherichia coli JM103 harboring plasmid pUR 2921. The FNN was believed to represent the membership functions of the fuzzy subsets and to implement fuzzy inference using previous experimental data. This FNN was then used for compensating the exponential feeding rate determined by the feedforward control element. The control system is therefore a feedforward-feedback type. The change in pH of the culture broth and the specific growth rate were used as the inputs to FNN to calculate the glucose feeding rate. A cell density of 84 g DWC/l in the fed-batch cultivation of the recombinant E. coli was obtained with this control strategy. Two different FNNs were then employed before and after induction to enhance plasmid-encoded β-galactosidase production. Before induction the specific growth rate was set as 0.31 h⁻¹, while it was changed to 0.1 h⁻¹ after induction. Compared to when only one FNN was used, the residual glucose concentration could be tightly controlled at an appropriate level by employing two FNNs, resulting in an increase in relative activity of β-galactosidase which was about four times greater. The present investigation demonstrates that a feedforward-feedback control strategy with FNN is a promising control strategy for the control of high cell density cultivation and high expression of a target gene in fed-batch cultivation of a recombinant strain.     

Production of pullulan by a fed-batch fermentation

Summary In pullulan production from sucrose byAureobasidium pullulans, a sugar concentration higher than 5% (w/v) inhibited cell growth and the production of exopolysaccharide. By a fed-batch fermentation, the inhibitory effects of the high sugar concentration were overcome and 58.0 g/1 of exopolysaccharide were obtained from 10% sucrose.Abbreviations m, n relationship parameters for the growth and non-growth associated product formation - X, Xmax biomass and maximum biomass concentration (g cell/1) - P product concentration (g exopolysaccharide/1) - specific growth rate of cell (hr^–1)     

Mixed-feed exponential feeding for fed-batch culture of recombinant methylotrophic yeast

A simple, accurate model capable of predicting cell growth and methanol utilization during the mixed substrate fed-batch fermentation of Mut^S recombinant Pichia pastoris was developed and was used to design an exponential feeding strategy for mixed substrate fed-batch fermentation at a constant specific growth rate. Mixed substrate feeding has been shown to boost productivity in recombinant fed-batch culture of P. pastoris, while fixed growth rate exponential feeding during fed-batch culture is a useful tool in process optimization and control.     

Fed-batch culture optimization of a growth-associated hybridoma cell line in chemically defined protein-free media

An investigation was made to study the processes of fed-batch cultures of a hybridoma cell line in chemically defined protein-free media. First of all, a strong growth-associated pattern was correlated between the production of MAb and growth of cells through the kinetic studies of batch cultures, suggesting the potential effectiveness of extending the duration of exponential growth in the improvement of MAb titers. Second, compositions of amino acids in the feeding solution were balanced stepwisely according to their stoichiometrical correlations with glucose uptake in batch and fed-batch cultures. Moreover, a limiting factor screening revealed the constitutive nature of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ for cell growth, and the importance of their feeding in fed-batch cultures. Finally, a fed-batch process was executed with a glucose uptake coupled feeding of balanced amino acids together with groups of nutrients and a feeding of CaCl₂ and MgCl₂ concentrate. The duration of exponential cell growth was extended from 70 h in batch culture and 98 h in fed-batch culture without Ca²⁺/Mg²⁺ feeding to 117 h with Ca²⁺/Mg²⁺ feeding. As a result of the prolonged exponential cell growth, the viable and total cell densities reached 7.04 × 10⁶ and 9.12 × 10⁶ cells ml⁻¹, respectively. The maximal MAb concentration achieved was increased to approximately eight times of that in serum supplemented batch culture.     

Determination of the maximum specific uptake capacities for glucose and oxygen in glucose-limited fed-batch cultivations of Escherichia coli

A simple pulse-based method for the determination of the maximum uptake capacities for glucose and oxygen in glucose limited cultivations of E. coli is presented. The method does not depend on the time-consuming analysis of glucose or acetate, and therefore can be used to control the feed rate in glucose limited cultivations, such as fed-batch processes. The application of this method in fed-batch processes of E. coli showed that the uptake capacity for neither glucose nor oxygen is a constant parameter, as often is assumed in fed-batch models. The glucose uptake capacity decreased significantly when the specific growth rate decreased below 0.15 h(-1) and fell to about 0.6 mmol g(-1) h(-1) (mmol per g cell dry weight and hour) at the end of fed-batch fermentations, where specific growth rate was approximately 0.02 h(-1). The oxygen uptake capacity started to decrease somewhat earlier when specific growth rate declined below 0.25 h(-1) and was 5 mmol g(-1) h(-1) at the end of the fermentations. The behavior of both uptake systems is integrated in a dynamic model which allows a better fitting of experimental values for glucose in fed-batch processes in comparison to generally used unstructured kinetic models.     

High-level secretory production of human granulocyte-colony stimulating factor by fed-batch culture of recombinant Escherichia coli

Secretory production of human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor fusion protein (hG-CSF) by fed-batch culture of Escherichia coli was investigated in both 2.5-L and 30-L fermentors. To develop a fed-batch culture condition that allows efficient production of hG-CSF, different feeding strategies including pH-stat, exponential and constant feeding were examined. Among these, the constant feeding strategy (0.228 g glucose2min^-1) and the exponential feeding that supports a low specific growth rate (µ=0.116 h^-1) resulted in the best hG-CSF production. Under these conditions, 4.4 g2L^-1 of hG-CSF was produced. The effect of induction time on the protein production was also investigated. For the fed-batch cultures carried out with the pH-stat and exponential feeding strategies, induction at higher cell density (late-exponential phase) resulted in more hG-CSF production compared with induction at lower cell density (early to mid-exponential phase). The constant feeding strategy that supported best hG-CSF production was applied to the scale-up production of hG-CSF in 30 L of fermentor. The maximum dry cell weight and hG-CSF concentration of 51.7 and 4.2 g2L^-1, respectively, was obtained.     

Modeling of Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous growth on glucose and overflow metabolism in batch and fed-batch cultures for astaxanthin production

An astaxanthin-producing yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous ENM5 was cultivated in a liquid medium containing 50 g/L glucose as the major carbon source in stirred fermentors (1.5-L working volume) in fully aerobic conditions. Ethanol was produced during the exponential growth phase as a result of overflow metabolism or fermentative catabolism of glucose by yeast cells. After accumulating to a peak of 3.5 g/L, the ethanol was consumed by yeast cells as a carbon source when glucose in the culture was nearly exhausted. High initial glucose concentrations and ethanol accumulation in the culture had inhibitory effects on cell growth. Astaxanthin production was partially associated with cell growth. Based on these culture characteristics, we constructed a modified Monod kinetic model incorporating substrate (glucose) and product (ethanol) inhibition to describe the relationship of cell growth rate with glucose and ethanol concentrations. This kinetic model, coupled with the Luedeking-Piret equation for the astaxanthin production, gave satisfactory prediction of the biomass production, glucose consumption, ethanol formation and consumption, and astaxanthin production in batch cultures over 25-75 g/L glucose concentration ranges. The model was also applied to fed-batch cultures to predict the optimum feeding scheme (feeding glucose and corn steep liquor) for astaxanthin production, leading to a high volumetric yield (28.6 mg/L) and a high productivity (5.36 mg/L/day).     

Production of extracellular 5-aminolevulinic acid byClostridium thermoaceticum grown in minimal medium

Summary A growth associated formation of extracellular 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) was found in the homoacetogenesis of glucose byClostridium thermoaceticum grown in minimal defined medium. The growth and ALA production was enhanced by L-cysteine HCl both in complex medium (UM) and minimal defined medium (MDM). The amount of ALA produced extracellularly in MDM wasca. 15 mg/L after 90-h anaerobic cultivation (cell-mass: 1.5 g/l; glucose consumed: 20 g/l).     

High cell density cultivation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis> with surface anchored transglucosidase for use as whole-cell biocatalyst for α-arbutin synthesis

A fed-batch culture strategy for the production of recombinant Escherichia coli cells anchoring surface-displayed transglucosidase for use as a whole-cell biocatalyst for α-arbutin synthesis was developed. Lactose was used as an inducer of the recombinant protein. In fed-batch cultures, dissolved oxygen was used as the feed indicator for glucose, thus accumulation of glucose and acetate that affected the cell growth and recombinant protein production was avoided. Fed-batch fermentation with lactose induction yielded a biomass of 18 g/L, and the cells possessed very high transglucosylation activity. In the synthesis of α-arbutin by hydroquinone glucosylation, the whole-cell biocatalysts showed a specific activity of 501 nkat/g cell and produced 21 g/L of arbutin, which corresponded to 76% molar conversion. A sixfold increased productivity of whole cell biocatalysts was obtained in the fed-batch culture with lactose induction, as compared to batch culture induced by IPTG.     

Influences of yeast extract on specific cellular yield of Ovine growth hormone during fed-batch fermentation of E. coli

In most cases of E. coli high cell density fermentation process, maximizing cell concentration helps in increasing the volumetric productivity of recombinant proteins usually at the cost of lower specific cellular protein yield. In this report, we describe a process for maintaining the specific cellular yield of Ovine growth hormone (oGH) from E. coli by optimal feeding of yeast extract during high cell density fermentation process. Recombinant oGH was produced as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli. Specific cellular yield of recombinant oGH was maintained by feeding yeast extract along with glucose during fed-batch fermentation. Glucose to yeast extract ratio of 0.75 was found to be optimum for maintaining the specific cellular oGH yield of 66 mg/g of E. coli cells. Continuous feeding of yeast extract along with glucose helped in reducing acetic acid secretion and promoted higher cell growth during fed-batch fermentation. High cell growth of E. coli and high specific yield of recombinant oGH thus helped in achieving high volumetric productivity of the expressed protein. A maximum of 2 g/l of ovine growth hormone was expressed as inclusion bodies in 12 h of fed-batch fermentation.     

Ethanol production with Saccharomyces cerevisiae at potassium-limited aerobic growth conditions

Summary The specific ethanol productivity withSaccharomyces cerevisiae grown aerobically in a chemostat at a growth rate of 0.17 hr^–1 was found to increase from zero to 13 mmol/g cell dry matter·h when the potassium content in the substrate used was decreased to 0.05 mol/kg glucose. 78% of the glucose metabolized were converted to ethanol under these aerobic growth conditions.     

Cell engineering of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis> allows high cell density accumulation without fed-batch process control

A set of mutations in the phosphoenolpyruvate:carbohydrate phosphotransferase system (PTS) was used to create Escherichia coli strains with a reduced uptake rate of glucose. This allows a growth restriction, which is controlled on cellular rather than reactor level, which is typical of the fed-batch cultivation concept. Batch growth of the engineered strains resulted in cell accumulation profiles corresponding to a growth rate of 0.78, 0.38 and 0.25 h⁻¹, respectively. The performance of the mutants in batch cultivation was compared to fed-batch cultivation of the wild type cell using restricted glucose feed to arrive at the corresponding growth profiles. Results show that the acetate production, oxygen consumption and product formation were similar, when a recombinant product was induced from the lacUV5 promoter. Ten times more cells could be produced in batch cultivation using the mutants without the growth detrimental production of acetic acid. This allows high cell density production without the establishment of elaborate fed-batch control equipment. The technique is suggested as a versatile tool in high throughput multiparallel protein production but also for increasing the number of experiments performed during process development while keeping conditions similar to the large-scale fed-batch performance.     

Effect of glucose flow on the acetone butanol fermentation in fed batch culture

Summary Clostridium acetobutylicum was grown in fed-batch cultures at different feeding rates of glucose. The sugar converted to butanol and acetone increased with increasing the glucose flow, on the contrary the conversion to butyric acid was highest at slow glucose feeding rate. The acetic acid concentration was constant at the different flows of glucose. The solventogenesis was not inhibited at high flow of sugar.     

Production of antithrombotic hirudin in <Emphasis Type="Italic">GAL1</Emphasis>-disrupted <Emphasis Type="Italic">Saccharomyces cerevisiae</Emphasis>

A gratuitous strain was developed by disrupting the GAL1 gene (galactokinase) of recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae harboring the antithrombotic hirudin gene in the chromosome under the control of the GAL10 promoter. A series of glucose-limited fed-batch cultures were carried out to examine the effects of glucose supply on hirudin expression in the gratuitous strain. Controlled feeding of glucose successfully supported both cell growth and hirudin expression in the gratuitous strain. The optimum fed-batch culture done by feeding glucose at a rate of 0.3 g h^–1 produced a maximum hirudin concentration of 62.1 mg l^–1, which corresponded to a 4.5-fold increase when compared with a simple batch culture done with the same strain.