L1

Question 1

What are 2 industrial microorganisms?

Answer 1

Fungi
Bacteria

Question 2

What are properties of industrial strains?

Answer 2

Produce substance of interest
Large scale culture (inexpensive)
non-pathogenic, spore former
Amenable to genetic engineering

Question 3

What is the difference between primary & secondary metabolites?

Answer 3

Primary - essential for growth of the organisms eg aas
secondary - not essential for growth eg antibiotics

Question 4

What are secondary metabolites production dependent on?

Answer 4

Growth conditions

Question 5

Define fermentation.

Answer 5

Any large-scale microbial process - not necessarily biochemical

Question 6

What is monosodium glutamate (MSG)?

Answer 6

Food additive

Question 7

How was MSG formerly produced?

Answer 7

produced formerly by acid hydrolysis of plant protein

Question 8

What microorganism produces large scale MSG?

Answer 8

Corynebacterium glutamicum

Question 9

What are 3 pros of using Corynebacterium glutamicum?

Answer 9

Less expensive
1000,000t produced per annum
biotin-limited medium (auxotroph)

Question 10

What is an auxotroph?

Answer 10

Strain that cannot produce a key nutrient itself

Question 11

What is in the biotin limited medium?

Answer 11

carbohydrate
ammonia
minerals
aerobic
100g glutamate

Question 12

What is a key enzyme in the glutmate production?

Answer 12

Glutamate dehydrogenase

Question 13

What is the efflux of glutamic acid through?

Answer 13

MscCG specialized mechanoreceptor

Question 14

When happened to alpha ketoglutarate in low biotin levels?

Answer 14

Activity suppressed

Question 15

When happened to alpha ketoglutarate in presence of penicillin?

Answer 15

Decreased levels

Question 16

What is alpha ketoglutarate activity regulated by?

Answer 16

OdhI

Question 17

What happens to OdhI in biotin-limiting conditions?

Answer 17

Unphosphorylated

Question 18

What is the gene DtsR a component of?

Answer 18

Biotin-containing protein in fatty acid metabolism

Question 19

What happens if dtsR is knocked out?

Answer 19

Consititutive overproduction of glutamate

Question 20

What is replacing screening of strains?

Answer 20

Rational strategies

Question 21

What are 6 ways to increase valine production?

Answer 21

Amplification of biosynthesis pathway enzymes
Reduction of by-product formation
Release of feedback regulation of key enzymes
Increase supply of reducing equivalents
Reduce metabolic fluxes to TCA cycle
Increase in export

Question 22

How do you grow antbiotics?

Answer 22

Isolate antibiotic producers from environment -> purify -> toxicity testing, clinical trails -> improve yield

Question 23

What are 2 ways to improve yield?

Answer 23

Optimize conditions
isolate high producing strains

Question 24

What is depelication?

Answer 24

Keep finding same antibiotics

Question 25

What are 4 ways to discover new antibiotics?

Answer 25

Unexplored environments
investigating ‘unculturable’ m/o
genome mining
activation of silent gene clusters

Question 26

What are unculturable m/o?

Answer 26

Majority of strains cannot be cultured in lab conditions

Question 27

What is genome mining?

Answer 27

Bypass cultivation & just sequence DNA to find biosynthetic gene clusters coding for enzymes that produce antibiotics

Question 28

How do you make an iChip?

Answer 28

dip central plate into suspension of cells mixed with molten agar
Single cell trapped in well
Unit assembled with semi-permeable membrane to cover wells

Question 29

What antibiotic was discovered due to i Chip?

Answer 29

Teixobactin

Question 30

Where do m/o grow in the iChip?

Answer 30

Series of wells - approx. one cell per well

Question 31

What is the MoA of teixobactin?

Answer 31

Inhibits cell wall biosynthesis (binds lipid II)

Question 32

Is there resistance to Teixobactin?

Answer 32

No resistant pathogens

Question 33

What type of antibiotic is Teixobactin?

Answer 33

Non-ribosomal peptide