Project description:Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are bio-based, biodegradable polyesters that can be produced from organic-rich waste streams using mixed microbial cultures. To maximize PHA production, mixed microbial cultures may be enriched for PHA-producing bacteria with a high storage capacity through the imposition of cyclic, aerobic feast-famine conditions in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Though enrichment SBRs have been extensively investigated a bulk solutions-level, little evidence at the proteome level is available to describe the observed SBR behavior to guide future SBR optimization strategies. As such, the purpose of this investigation was to characterize proteome dynamics of a mixed microbial culture in an SBR operated under aerobic feast-famine conditions using fermented dairy manure as the feedstock for PHA production. At the beginning of the SBR cycle, excess PHA precursors were provided to the mixed microbial culture (i.e., feast), after which followed a long duration devoid of exogenous substrate (i.e., famine). Two-dimensional electrophoresis was used to separate protein mixtures during a complete SBR cycle, and proteins of interest were identified.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of the Donna II mixed community containing Dehalococcoides mccartyi strain 195 comparing a batch starved control to the mixed community being fed 1,2,3,4-tetrachlorobenzene as an electron acceptor. The goal was to determine which transcripts are regulated in response to a shift in a different electron acceptor rather than the consistent tetrachloroethene (PCE) that the parent reactor was maintained on.
Project description:Chinese Hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the main platform used to produce recombinant proteins in the biopharmaceutical industry and are commonly cultured in either fed-batch or perfusion mode. However, the optimization of the complex biological systems used in such processes is extremely challenging. Omics approaches can reveal otherwise unknown characteristics of these systems and identify culture parameters that can be manipulated to optimize the cultivation process. Here we have applied proteomic profiling to a monoclonal antibody (mAb) production operated in perfusion mode to explore how cell biology and reactor environment change as the cell density reaches ≥ 200 x 106 cells/mL. The proteomics data show an increase of structural proteins as cell density increase, signs of oxidative stress and changes in glutathione metabolism at very high cell densities. Additionally, metabolomic profiling was carried out. See article “High cell density culture has a maintained exoproteome and metabolome” for more information.
Project description:A continuous culture of Bifidobacterium longum NCC2705 was carried out in a 2.5-l reactor (Bioengineering AG, Wald, Switzerland), equipped with a Biospectra control system (Biospectra AG, Schlieren, Switzerland) and containing 2 l of MRS, added of 0.05% cysteine, inoculated with 2 % (v/v) preculture. The temperature was maintained at 37°C and the pH at 6.0 by addition of 5 M NaOH. The culture was stirred constantly at 250 rpm using two rushton type propellers. Anaerobic conditions were maintained by flushing the headspace of the reactor with CO2. After 8 h in batch mode the culture was run in continuous mode at a dilution rate of 0.1 h-1. Fresh medium was added using a peristaltic pump (Alitea, Bioengineering AG, Wald, Switzerland), and fermented broth harvested with a second peristaltic pump (Alitea, Bioengineering AG, Wald, Switzerland) set at a slightly higher flow rate. A stabilization period of 90 h (corresponding to nine reactor volume changes) was operated prior culture monitoring (t=0). Aliquots of 2 ml taken at t=31, 134 and 211 h were centrifuged (4,000 g, 1 min, room temperature) for transcriptomic analysis. Supernatants were discarded and cell pellets snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80ºC until RNA-extraction. Keywords: Time course of Bifidobacterium longum in continuous culture
Project description:Two-stage two-phase biogas reactor systems consisting each of one batch downflow hydrolysis reactor (HR, vol. 10 L), one process fluid storage tank (vol. 10 L), and one downstream upflow anaerobic filter reactor (AF, vol. 10 L), were operated at mesophilic (M, 37 °C) and thermophilic (T, 55 °C) temperatures and over a period of > 750 d (Figure 1, Additional file 1). For each reactor system and for each process temperature, two replicates were conducted in parallel, denominated further as biological replicates. Further process details were as previously published. Start-up of all fermenters were performed using liquid fermenter material from a biogas plant converting cattle manure in co-digestion with grass and maize silage and other biomass at varying concentrations and at mesophilic temperatures. Silage of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) was digested as sole substrate in batches of varying amounts with retention times of 28 d (storage of bale silage at -20 °C, cutting length 3 cm, volatile substances (VS) 32 % of fresh mass (FM), total Kjeldahl nitrogen 7.6 g kgFM-1, NH4+-N 0.7 g kgFM-1, acetic acid 2.6 g kgFM-1, propionic acid < 0.04 g kgFM-1, lactic acid 2.6 g kgFM-1, ethanol 2.2 g kgFM-1, C/N ratio 19.3, chemical oxygen demand (COD) 357.7 g kgFM-1, analysis of chemical properties according to [6]. No spoilage was observed in the silage. Biogas yields were calculated as liters normalized to 0 °C and 1013 hPa (LN) per kilogram volatile substances (kgVS). For chemical analysis, samples were taken from the effluents of HR and AF. For sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries, microbial metagenomes, and microbial metatranscriptomes, samples were taken from the silage digestate in the HR digested for 2 d. At this time point, high AD rates were detected as indicated by the fast increase of volatile fatty acids (VFA), e.g., acetic acid. Sampling was performed at two different organic loading rates (OLR), i.e., batch-fermentation of 500 g (denominated as “low OLR”, samples MOLR500 and TOLR500) and 1,500 g silage (denominated as “increased OLR”, samples MOLR1500 and TOLR1500).
Project description:A continuous culture of Bifidobacterium longum NCC2705 was carried out in a 2.5-l reactor (Bioengineering AG, Wald, Switzerland), equipped with a Biospectra control system (Biospectra AG, Schlieren, Switzerland) and containing 2 l of MRS, added of 0.05% cysteine, inoculated with 2 % (v/v) preculture. The temperature was maintained at 37°C and the pH at 6.0 by addition of 5 M NaOH. The culture was stirred constantly at 250 rpm using two rushton type propellers. Anaerobic conditions were maintained by flushing the headspace of the reactor with CO2. After 8 h in batch mode the culture was run in continuous mode at a dilution rate of 0.1 h-1. Fresh medium was added using a peristaltic pump (Alitea, Bioengineering AG, Wald, Switzerland), and fermented broth harvested with a second peristaltic pump (Alitea, Bioengineering AG, Wald, Switzerland) set at a slightly higher flow rate. A stabilization period of 90 h (corresponding to nine reactor volume changes) was operated prior culture monitoring (t=0). Aliquots of 2 ml taken at t=31, 134 and 211 h were centrifuged (4,000 g, 1 min, room temperature) for transcriptomic analysis. Supernatants were discarded and cell pellets snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80ºC until RNA-extraction. Keywords: Time course of Bifidobacterium longum in continuous culture Bifidobacterium longum NCC2705 at time 31 versus time 134 h and versus time 211 h in continuous culture. Two technical replicares with dyes swaps
Project description:A three-stage continuous fermentative system was developed to simulate and control physicochemical factors of the gut biology. Inoculation was of each reactor was performed from a human fecal sample which was initially amplified with a batch procedure. Samples from the initial feces, the batch and from the bioreactors media were collected to extract bacterial DNA. 16S PCR amplification was performed to assess the microbial diversity at the family level using the HuGChip. Amplified DNA was purified and labelled with either Cy3 or Cy5 dye and hybridized on the microarray.