15- Industrial microbiology

Question 1

What is Industrial microbiology?

Answer 1

• Industrial use of microorganisms to produce useful compounds.

• Primary metabolites are produced during exponential
phase: alcohol.

• Secondary metabolites are produced at the end of growth, near or at the stationary phase: antibiotics.

Question 2

What are Fermentors?

Answer 2

• Vessel used for industrial growth of microorganisms (chemostat).

• In industrial microbiology,
fermentation refer to any large-scale microbial process (aerobic or anaerobic).
• Control of:
– Temperature
– Nutrients
– pH
– Dissolved oxygen

Question 3

Microorganisms? How are they used?

Answer 3

• Wild-type strains are usually not suitable.

• Use spontaneous mutants that overproduce the desired metabolites; deregulated
mutant in respect to the metabolic pathway leading to the production of the compound. Very useful to produce amino acids.

• Genetically modified organisms. Cloned genes expressed in bacteria or yeasts. Human insulin and a variety of enzymes (e.g. rennet) are produced this way.