Tailoring of industrial products by submerged fermentation

PERA L.M; LUNA FLAVIA; CASTRO, GR; BAIGORÍ M

Industrial Fermentation: Food Processes, Nutrient Sources and Production Strategies

Nova Science

Año: 2010; p. 1 - 31

Microbial cultivation processes for production of goods is ancient and well-known technology. However, over the last 10 years it use has increased rapidly because of the combination of a more deep knowledge of cellular metabolic pathways, changes in operational costs, product quality requirements and additionally as “green” or environmentally friendly technology among others. Researchers are now taking advantage of different cultivation strategies, from batch controlled procedures in one side to continuous culture systems. Particularly, continuous culture procedures combined with metabolic flux analysis and molecular biology techniques, are used for pathway manipulation during growth in steady state conditions, which should yield new insights into the physiology of industrial organisms, as well as leading to increased productivity potential. The determination of metabolic fluxes in-vivoin-vivo and subsequent metabolic flux analyses are best conducted under steady-state conditions. Removal of transient growth effects present in batch cultures allows more realistic estimation of metabolic pathway deletions or enhancements effects in continuous cultures. Also, the use of metabolite measurements coupled with the stoichiometry of reactions has been applied mainly in metabolic networks validations. On the other hand, new concepts had been developed as the medium engineering area. This approach suggests the feasibility of producing new industrially relevant molecules having different applications simply by controlling fermentations parameters. This chapter highlights recent findings and new strategies in tailoring of some relevant industrial products by submerged fermentation. As examples we want to show significant applications such as lipase, and nitrogen-fixing microorganism production.