Stirred tank culture of Bacillus thuringiensis H-14 for production of the mosquitocidal δ-endotoxin: mathematical modelling and scaling-up studies

The effect of culture conditions on -endotoxin production by strain S128 of Bacillus thuringiensis H-14 (locally isolated in Egypt) was investigated using a 10l working volume fermenter. Fermentation medium formulated from the inexpensive locally available soya (as a nitrogen source) and molasses (as a carbon source) was used. Aeration, agitation, pH and initial concentration of molasses were chosen as experimental factors and their influence on toxin yield was investigated using 2⁴ central composite experimental design. The mathematical model obtained revealed that the optimal batch cultivation conditions with respect to agitation, pH, and initial concentration of molasses were 325 rev min^–1, 7.1 and 2.1% (w/v) respectively. The mathematical model obtained indicated that by increasing the aeration rate over 0.89 v/v per minute the productivity could still be increased. A simulated scaling-up study, in which the Simplex method was applied, is also presented. The results of this investigation could be of great help for large-scale production of a cheap mosquito-larvicide in developing countries where mosquito-borne diseases are still a serious health and economic problem.     

Ecosystem productivity can be predicted from potential relative growth rate and species abundance

We show that ecosystem-specific aboveground net primary productivity (SANPP, g g⁻¹ day⁻¹, productivity on a per gram basis) can be predicted from species-level measures of potential relative growth rate (RGR_max), but only if RGR_max is weighted according to the species' relative abundance. This is in agreement with Grime's mass-ratio hypothesis. Productivity was measured in 12 sites in a French Mediterranean post-agricultural succession, while RGR_max was measured on 26 of the most abundant species from this successional sere, grown hydroponically. RGR_max was only weakly correlated ( r ² = 0.12, P  < 0.05) with field age when species abundance was not considered, but the two variables were strongly correlated ( r ² = 0.81, P  < 0.001) when the relative abundance of species in each field was taken into account. SANPP also decreased significantly with field age. This resulted in a tight relationship ( r ² = 0.77, P  < 0.001) between productivity and RGR_max weighted according to species relative biomass contribution. Our study shows that scaling-up from the potential properties of individual species is possible, and that information on potential and realized species traits can be integrated to predict ecosystem functioning.     

小叶锦鸡儿灌丛群落蒸腾耗水量估算方法

为了确定沙地小叶锦鸡儿 (Caragana microphylla) 人工林的蒸腾速率, 于2006年6月运用热平衡茎流测量技术, 对科尔沁沙地一处15a生人工小叶锦鸡儿群落的分枝液流动态进行了监测。根据生物统计结果选取被测标准枝, 标准枝基径在0.4~1cm范围内。同时, 分别用基径总断面积推算法和叶片密度推算法对灌丛叶面积进行了估算。以叶面积为扩展纯量, 利用标准枝液流对灌丛群落耗水量进行尺度转换, 在转换过程中, 假设叶面积与蒸腾耗水量之间具有很强的相关性。该尺度转换方法经与大型称重式Lysimeter测值对比验证, 误差小于14.3%, 可望准确估算小叶锦鸡儿灌丛群落的蒸腾耗水量。     

Optimization of cell culture conditions for production of biologically active proteins

We investigated the basic technology of cell culture conditions for production of useful substances such as cytokines, and related proteins produced by Namalwa cells. Namalwa cells (Klein, 1972), human B lymphoblastoid cells, were used for large scale production of alpha-interferon (Klein, 1979). Namalwa KJM-1, a subline of Namalwa cells, adapted to serum- and albumin-free medium, can grow at a high density above 1 × 10⁷ cells/ml in suspension mode by the use of a perfusion culture system, Biofermenter, containing a cone-type cell-sedimentation column as cell separator (Sato, 1983).Several kinds of cytokine cDNA can be introduced and expressed in Namalwa KJM-1 cells (Miyaji, 1990a,b,c). Some of these were produced in large quantities by use of a gene amplification method with dhfr (Miyaji, 1990c), even though the Namalwa KJM-1 cells contained endogenous dhfr genes. For stable production of the target protein, Namalwa KJM-1 cells are very useful host cells, because they have no effective endogenous protease activity in the conditioned medium.