TRANSLATION OF FERMENTATION RESEARCH INTO INDUSTRIAL FERMENTATION---- PROBLEMS??

I remembered during my teaching days at the university that the lecturer in microbial genetics used to claim that it is possible to create a microbial super strain that is genetically designed to produce high concentration of fermentation products.

In a way this is true or can be even proven in the laboratory at small conical flask level and where the growth conditions are closely monitored and control. However in translating the research into industrial scale or using large fermentors is another issue. It is generally not possible to retain the efficiency of the super strains achieved at the small scale laboratory in large fermentors.

The problem is more than just engineering scale up procedures but involve on the stability of the selected strain. The conditions or the environment of large fermentors are very different from those in the laboratory. Let us get one correct point of view here.

Even though we develop the super strain cultures and use that as inocula of the large fermentors, the culture will have to reproduce into a large population and at the same time adapt to the new internal environment of the the fermentors. As the microorganisms reproduce and build up into a large population in the fermentor it will be busy genetically mutating itself with progenies which are adapted to the new environment. Over the long time period the original cultures have probably 'mutated' into new strains far different from the original strain studied in the laboratory. It might no longer be able to produce the same composition and quality of the desired fermentation products





Type rest of the post here.