| 51. |
- Olsson, Lisbeth, 1963, et al.
(author)
-
Microbial robustness in bioprocesses
- 2023
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Yeast is broadly exploited for industrial use, and strains are constantly improved to meet the requirements to produce the targeted product with high yield, productivity and titer. Successful strains have consistent performance also in presence of different perturbations, i.e. their performance is robust. The concept of microbial robustness will be discussed and contrasted to tolerance toward specific stresses. Furthermore, a method to quantitatively assess microbial robustness will be presented. This method allows a high throughput evaluation, in a perturbation space where different cellular function can form the basis for the evaluation. Another important tool box to examine intracellular status in face of pertubations are biosensors. Examples of applying these two methodologies towards microbial robustness will be discussed. We have used the tools to scale down bioprocesses and their perturbation, to follow adaptive laboratory evolution and to gain understanding of subpopulations.
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| 52. |
- Svensson, Sofie, et al.
(author)
-
Fungal textiles : Wet spinning of fungal microfibers to produce monofilament yarns
- 2021
-
In: Sustainable Materials and Technologies. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-9937. ; 28
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The cell wall of a zygomycetes fungus was successfully wet spun into monofilament yarns and demonstrated as a novel resource for production of sustainable textiles. Furthermore, the fungus could be cultivated on bread waste, an abundant food waste with large negative environmental impact if not further utilized. Rhizopus delemar was first cultivated in bread waste in a bubble column bioreactor. The fungal cell wall collected through alkali treatment of fungal biomass contained 36 and 23% glucosamine and N-acetyl glucosamine representing chitosan and chitin in the cell wall, respectively. The amino groups of chitosan were protonated by utilizing acetic or lactic acid. This resulted in the formation of a uniform hydrogel of fungal microfibers. The obtained hydrogel was wet spun into an ethanol coagulation bath to form an aggregated monofilament, which was finally dried. SEM images confirmed the alignment of fungal microfibers along the monofilament axis. The wet spun monofilaments had tensile strengths up to 69.5 MPa and Young's modulus of 4.97 GPa. This work demonstrates an environmentally benign procedure to fabricate renewable fibers from fungal cell wall cultivated on abundant food waste, which opens a window to creation of sustainable fungal textiles.
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| 53. |
- Westman, Johan, 1983, et al.
(author)
-
Current progress in high cell density yeast bioprocesses for bioethanol production
- 2015
-
In: Biotechnology journal. - : Wiley. - 1860-6768 .- 1860-7314. ; 10:8, s. 1185-1195
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- High capital costs and low reaction rates are major challenges for establishment of fermentation-based production systems in the bioeconomy. Using high cell density cultures is an efficient way to increase the volumetric productivity of fermentation processes, thereby enabling faster and more robust processes and use of smaller reactors. In this review, we summarize recent progress in the application of high cell density yeast bioprocesses for first and second generation bioethanol production. High biomass concentrations obtained by retention of yeast cells in the reactor enables easier cell reuse, simplified product recovery and higher dilution rates in continuous processes. High local cell density cultures, in the form of encapsulated or strongly flocculating yeast, furthermore obtain increased tolerance to convertible fermentation inhibitors and utilize glucose and other sugars simultaneously, thereby overcoming two additional hurdles for second generation bioethanol production. These effects are caused by local concentration gradients due to diffusion limitations and conversion of inhibitors and sugars by the cells, which lead to low local concentrations of inhibitors and glucose. Quorum sensing may also contribute to the increased stress tolerance. Recent developments indicate that high cell density methodology, with emphasis on high local cell density, offers significant advantages for sustainable second generation bioethanol production.
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| 54. |
- Adeboye, Peter, 1982, et al.
(author)
-
Conversion of lignin-derived phenolic compounds by Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- 2014
-
In: 36th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals, April 2-May 1st, Clearwater Beach, Florids, USA.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Lignin breakdown during biomass pretreatment releases a wide array of phenolic compounds in lignocellulose hydrolysates. Phenolic compounds, together with organic acids and furaldehydes are known to be inhibitors of microbial fermentation, thus limiting the efficient bioconversion of lignocellulose biomass. The goal of our study is to improve S. cerevisiae tolerance to phenolic compounds from lignocellulose hydrolysates and investigate its conversion capacities. In particular, we aimed i) to establish a correlation between the phenolic compounds structure and the effect on yeast growth, and ii) to investigate the conversion/detoxification products of selected representative compounds in order to provide strain engineering strategies for enhanced phenolics conversion.First, the effect on S. cerevisiae growth of 13 different phenolic compounds commonly found in lignocellulose hydrolysates was characterized. The compounds could be grouped in three clusters, according to their effect on lag phase duration, specific growth rate and cell density. Next, coniferyl aldehyde, p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid were chosen as representative compounds and their conversion product by S. cerevisiae in aerobic culture in bioreactor were identified and followed throughout the fermentation time. Understanding the effect of different phenolics on yeast and their conversion/ detoxification pathways is the first step not only in strain engineering for enhanced robustness, but also for designing new biorefinery concepts, where the bioconversion of lignin-derived aromatics could potentially be the source of new bio-based chemicals.
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| 55. |
- Bettiga, Maurizio, 1978, et al.
(author)
-
Yeast physiology studies and metabolic engineering for enhanced robustness
- 2014
-
In: Enzitec 2014- XI Seminário Brasileiro de Tecnologia Enzimática. Barra da Tijuca-Rio de Janeiro, April 14th to 16th, 2014.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The extensive research on second-generation ethanol has paved the way to a new concept of bio-based industry, where lignocellulosic material is the primary source of sugars, to be converted to a number of fuels and chemicals. Sugars are released from cellulose and hemicellulose by pretreatment and hydrolysis steps. Harsh conditions during pretreatment promote the formation of a number of inhibitory compounds, among which weak organic acids, furaldehydes and phenolic compounds. In addition, the product of interest can act as a potent inhibitor. Regardless of the product, robust microorganisms are a prerequisite for the feasibility of lignocellulose-based bioprocesses.Current research carried out by our group focuses on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and aims at investigating the molecular bases of microbial robustness. Our efforts include the identification of the molecular targets of different classes of fermentation inhibitors aiming at understanding the complex responses of the cells to these compounds. The final goal is to engineer more robust strains. The concept of robustness will be discussed and examples of key features for S. cerevisiae robustness as well as examples of successful engineering to increase robustness will be presented.In particular, during this presentation, the following results will be discussed i) the study of redox and energy metabolism as key determinants of tolerance; ii) conversion routes of in S. cerevisiae as a way of detoxification from phenolic compounds; iii) cell membrane engineering as a strategy to achieve enhanced tolerance to weak acids.
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| 56. |
- Zamani, Akram
(author)
-
Superabsorbent Polymers from the Cell Wall of Zygomycetes Fungi
- 2010
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The present thesis presents new renewable, antimicrobial and biodegradable superabsorbent polymers (SAPs), produced from the cell wall of zygomycetes fungi. The cell wall was characterized and chitosan, being one of the most important ingredients, was extracted, purified, and converted to SAP for use in disposable personal care products designed for absorption of different body fluids. The cell wall of zygomycetes fungi was characterized by subsequent hydrolysis with sulfuric and nitrous acids and analyses of the products. The main ingredients of the cell wall were found to be polyphosphates (4-20%) and copolymers of glucosamine and N-acetyl glucosamine, i.e. chitin and chitosan (45-85%). The proportion of each of these components was significantly affected by the fungal strain and also the cultivation conditions. Moreover, dual functions of dilute sulfuric acid in relation to chitosan, i.e. dissolution at high temperatures and precipitation at lowered temperatures, were discovered and thus used as a basis for development of a new method for extraction and purification of the fungal chitosan. Treatment of the cell wall with dilute sulfuric acid at room temperature resulted in considerable dissolution of the cell wall polyphosphates, while chitosan and chitin remained intact in the cell wall residue. Further treatment of this cell wall residue, with fresh acid at 120°C, resulted in dissolution of chitosan and its separation from the remaining chitin/chitosan of the cell wall skeleton which was not soluble in hot acid. Finally, the purified fungal chitosan (0.34 g/g cell wall) was recovered by precipitation at lowered temperatures and pH 8-10. The purity and the yield of fungal chitosan in the new method were significantly higher than that were obtained in the traditional acetic acid extraction method. As a reference to pure chitosan, SAP from shellfish chitosan, was produced by conversion of this biopolymer into water soluble carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS), gelation of CMCS with glutaraldehyde in aqueous solutions (1-2%), and drying the resultant gel. Effects of carboxymethylation, gelation and drying conditions on the water binding capacity (WBC) of the final products, were investigated. Finally, choosing the best condition, a biological superabsorbent was produced from zygomycetes chitosan. The CMCS-based SAPs were able to absorb up to 200 g water/g SAP. The WBC of the best SAP in urine and saline solutions was 40 and 32 g/g respectively, which is comparable to the WBC of commercially acceptable SAPs under identical conditions (34-57 and 30-37 g/g respectively).
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| 57. |
- Munthe, Christian, 1962
(author)
-
Pure Selection. The Ethics of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and Choosing Children without Abortion
- 1999
-
Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Preimplantation ge¬netic diagnosis (PGD) is taken to mark the starting-point of a new phase in human reproduction, where the possibility of choosing children on genetic grounds without having to resort to ethi¬cally controversial procedures (such as abortion) will grad¬ually increase. Ethical and political issues actu¬alised by this develop¬ment are addressed. The discussion touches upon issues regarding the moral status of em¬bryos and gametes, the moral import of respecting individual auton¬omy and its implications for the requirement of informed consent in health-care, the connec¬tion between sickness, dis¬ability and the value of life, the moral status of possible future people, and the connection between choosing children and eugenic policies of the past. Practical policy issues are adressed on the basis of this, as well as an empirical case-study of the intro¬duction of PGD in Sweden. The book ends up in a set of recommendations regarding the management of re¬search on, introduction and routine use of procedures for pure se¬lection, both within health care and from the point of view of society as a whole. It is argued that research on such procedures should be allowed and supported by society. However, tight restrictions regarding the clinical introduction of new procedures in this area is highly desirable. A rough model for implementing such re¬strictions is also pre¬sented. It is further asserted that, although reasons of economy and safety should limit the access to pure se¬lection, society should not apply any explicit restrictions based on ideasregarding how different traits affect a person’s quality of life. It is stressed that, in order to to avoid a re¬sur¬rection of eugenic policies of the past, the development in this field un¬der¬lines the need for continued and strengthen public support to the sick, dis¬abled and mentally retarded.
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| 58. |
- Wang, Guokun, 1988, et al.
(author)
-
RNAi expression tuning, microfluidic screening, and genome recombineering for improved protein production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- 2019
-
In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 116:19, s. 9324-9332
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The cellular machinery that supports protein synthesis and secretion lies at the foundation of cell factory-centered protein production. Due to the complexity of such cellular machinery, the challenge in generating a superior cell factory is to fully exploit the production potential by finding beneficial targets for optimized strains, which ideally could be used for improved secretion of other proteins. We focused on an approach in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that allows for attenuation of gene expression, using RNAi combined with high-throughput microfluidic single-cell screening for cells with improved protein secretion. Using direct experimental validation or enrichment analysis-assisted characterization of systematically introduced RNAi perturbations, we could identify targets that improve protein secretion. We found that genes with functions in cellular metabolism (YDC1, AAD4, ADE8, and SDH1), protein modification and degradation (VPS73, KTR2, CNL1, and SSA1), and cell cycle (CDC39), can all impact recombinant protein production when expressed at differentially down-regulated levels. By establishing a workflow that incorporates Cas9-mediated recombineering, we demonstrated how we could tune the expression of the identified gene targets for further improved protein production for specific proteins. Our findings offer a high throughput and semirational platform design, which will improve not only the production of a desired protein but even more importantly, shed additional light on connections between protein production and other cellular processes.
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| 59. |
- Löfdahl, Per-Åke, 1959-, et al.
(author)
-
Affinity maturation of a TNF-α binding affibodymolecule by Darwinian survival selection
- 2010
-
In: Biotechnology and applied biochemistry. - 0885-4513 .- 1470-8744. ; 55, s. 111-120
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The introduction of different methodologies for construction and screening ofcomplex protein libraries has provided powerful means in protein engineeringfor development of molecules with desired traits. A challenge faced in manysituations is to adapt a given methodology for efficient and rapid identification ofthe most interesting variants present in a library. In the present study, theconcept of Darwinian selection based on a growth advantage for clones havingthe desired trait has been investigated. Using a β-lactamase-based ProteinFragment Complementation Assay (PCA), an affinity maturation of a TNF-αbinding affibody molecule of an initial 2 nM affinity for the target has beenperformed. Initial characterization of the PCA system, based on the affinitydriven reconstitution of β-lactamase activity in the periplasm of cells harbouringa library member showing affinity for a co-expressed target protein, showed thatthe system was responsive to promoter induction level, interaction affinity andapplied selection pressure. Using combinatorial protein engineering principles, a107 library of second generation affibody molecules was constructed andsubjected to selection of improved variants by library growth in liquid culture.The results showed that after a pre-selection step on semi-solid media toeliminate non-binding variants, present in majority, two rounds of selection inliquid culture resulted in an enrichment for binders showing up ten-fold higheraffinity to the TNF-α target than the ancestral variant. Biosensor analysesshowed that the major factor for the improved affinity could be attributed toreduced off-rate constants.
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| 60. |
- Löfdahl, Per-Åke, 1959-
(author)
-
On bacterial formats in protein library technology
- 2009
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Millions of years of evolution have resulted in an immense number of different proteins, which participate in virtually every process within cells and thus are of utmost importance for allknown forms of life. In addition, there are several examples of natural proteins which have found use in applications outside their natural environment, such as the use of enzymes infood industry and washing powders or the use of antibodies in diagnostic, bioseparation or therapeutic applications. To improve the performance of proteins in such applications, anumber of techniques, all collectively referred to as ‘protein engineering’, are performed in thelaboratory.Traditionally, methods involving ‘rational design’, where a few alterations are introduced atspecific protein locations to hopefully result in expected improvements have been applied.However, the use of more recent techniques involving a simultaneous construction of a large number of candidate variants (protein libraries) by various diversification principles, fromwhich rare clones showing enhanced properties can be isolated have contributed greatly to thefield of protein engineering.In the present thesis, different protein traits of biotechnological importance have beenaddressed for improvements by the use of such methods, in which there is a crucial need tomaintain a clonal link between the genotype and the phenotype to allow an identification of protein library members isolated by virtue of their functional properties. In all protein library investigations included in this thesis this coupling has been obtained by Escherichia coli bacterialcell-membrane compartmental confinement.In a first study, a combination of error prone PCR and gene-shuffling was applied to the Tobacco Etch Virus (TEV)-protease gene in order to produce collections from which genesencoding variants showing an enhanced soluble expression of the enzyme frequently used inbiotechnology to cleave fusion proteins were identified. Using Green Fluorescence Protein(GFP)-based cell fluorescence analysis, a clone with a five-fold increase in the yield of solubly produced protein was successfully isolated. In a second study, a novel and different GFPbased selection system, in addition also involving targeted in vivo protein degradation principles,was employed for investigations of the substrate sequence space of the same protease. In two additional studies, a selection system denoted Protein Fragment Complementation Assay(PCA), based on the affinity driven structural complementation of a genetically split β-lactamase enzyme was used to identify variants having desired target protein binding abilities,including both specificity and affinity. Using Darwinian principles concerning clonal growth advantages, affibody binding proteins showing sub-nanomolar dissociation constants to thehuman cytokine TNF-α were isolated. Taken together, these studies have shown that the bacterial format is very well suited for use in various aspects of protein library selection.
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