Question

Imagine that you're an industrial microbiologist who wants to set up a 10-liter culture for production of the antibiotic bacitracin by the bacterium Bacillus licheniformis. Previous work has shown that bacitracin production is induced in B. licheniformis cultures in TSB medium only when culture density is very high (ODs001.5) and growth rate k <1 gen/hr. When growing in TSB at 37°C, g 45 min, but at 30°C, g 60 min. You start a 10-liter TSB culture by inoculating it with 1 ml of an overnight starter culture of B. licheniformis whose OD600nm 2.2. a) (5 pt) What is the minimum length of time it would take to initiate bacitracin production when grown at 30°C and 37°C? (Show your work/reasoning) b) (2 pt) What factors might result in the actual length of time to start bacitracin synthesis in these cultures being different than the minima aculated in (a)? (Limit 200 words) c) (3 pt) How could you imagine converting this "batch culture" system into a "continuous culture" system for production of bacitracin? What advantages would the continuous culture potentially have? (Limit 200 words)

Answer 1

1. Bacillus licheniformis produces polypeptide antibiotic such as bacitracin which forms an unique group of bioactive molecules produced by antibiotics and are active against gram positive bacteria. The optimum time for bacitracin prodcution was found to be 24 hours. The bacitracin production at 30 degree celsius and 37 degree celsius takes a minimum time of 24 hours and 72 hours to grow.