Bioreactor Obtaining Foreign Gene: Obtaining The Foreign Gene Product

The efficient use of microorganisms for the production of essential commodities like cheese, bread, beer, tea, coffee, chocolate, antibiotics, and various other primary and secondary metabolites has been made possible in recent years by advancements in fermentation technology and microbial biotechnology. These products arise from the microorganisms' capacity to ferment particular metabolites into the desired outcome.

It is necessary to utilize a regulated environment that offers favorable circumstances for growth to produce the desired product and encourage the development of microorganisms. This includes maintaining the right pH, temperature, airflow, flow rates for the culture medium, and agitation rate, among other things.

Such production is carried out in a sizable tank or vessel known as a bioreactor, which enables the synthesis of vast quantities of a product by mass-producing microorganisms. The required product will be produced by microorganisms that are given the right environment in the bioreactor to develop and may then be purified. Every one of the millions of cells per unit of space utilized in a bioreactor is a micro-bioreactor in and of itself.

Bioreactors

The term "bioreactor" refers to the container used to conduct chemical reactions. It is a tool that assists in the mass production of culture. New biological products are created in the bioreactor with the assistance of various environmental cells, including plant, animal, and human cells. The bioreactor is constructed of stainless steel and has a cylinder-like shape. The basic stirred-tank bioreactor and the sparged stirred-tank bioreactor are the two bioreactors most suited for producing foreign gene products. There are several different kinds of bioreactors, including continuous stirred tanks, fluidized beds, bubble columns, packed beds, photobioreactors, and airlift reactors.

Types of Bio-Reactors

• Batch Reactors: Because it is a straightforward, closed system after the tank has been vaccinated, no additional input or outflow is permitted. Over time, waste materials accumulate, and nutrients and oxygen levels start to decrease.

• CSTRs (Continuous Stirred Tank Bioreactors) are continuous input/output bioreactors. To achieve this, the culture medium containing the necessary nutrients and reactants is continually fed into the bioreactor, and the products of the bio-reaction are simultaneously collected from the tank. So, these tanks are used for continuous chemical processing.

• Airlift Bioreactors: These types of bioreactors are particularly useful when working with aerobic cell cultures or when the desired end product is gaseous. The vessel's contents are stirred up with gas. The gas that is supplied into the container is also used to add new materials or eliminate metabolic compounds created by the microbial cells.

• In fixed-bed bioreactors, the responding cells are immobilised to a surface of tightly packed solid particles. The solid particles could either be permeable or not.

• Photobioreactors — These bioreactors stand out from the others since they are constructed of translucent materials like glass or plastic. These flat-panel or tube-shaped bioreactors are lit by natural or artificial light, promoting the growth of photosynthesis-dependent bacteria.

Steps in bio-processes

• Using living microbial cells to produce desired products is called a "bioprocess." The ability of the microorganism to grow in the physicochemical environment offered to it determines whether a bioprocess is successful.

• The three P's—the three phases that make up a typical bioprocess—are

• The preparation step, also known as "upstream processing," entails getting ready all the supplies and machinery employed in the manufacturing process. Additionally, air purification and equipment sterilisation are included.

• The discovery and creation of suitable strains. Various techniques are used to improve strains as well.

• The creation of ideal conditions for culture to thrive and provide the intended results

• Production is the primary stage during which bioprocessing takes place. The cells' reaction to the surrounding environment forms the desired metabolic product. During this phase, the cells are constantly dividing and metabolising.

• Purification, also known as "downstream processing" or product recovery, separates the desired product from the rest of the medium, removes impurities, and then purifies the resultant product.

Steps to Obtain Foreign Gene Product

• Microbial biotechnology entails the application of biotechnology principles to microorganisms in order to process them as needed to produce the necessary products. These bacteria may be recombinant strains produced through genetic engineering, mutant strains from laboratory cultures, or naturally isolated strains.

• The procedures for acquiring foreign gene products are as follows:

• Isolating the desired gene

• Locating a possible vector for the desired gene to be carried. Using ligase, the gene is inserted into the vector. Thus, "recombinant DNA" is produced.

• The introduction of the r-DNA into an appropriate host, such as a bacterial cell. The "foreign gene" is now present in the cell.

• recombinant cell selection

• intended protein or metabolite expression by recombinant cells

• the large-scale cultivation of the desired product in bioreactors

• Recovery of the product and cell separation

Bioreactors Advantages

Bioreactors are valuable tools that allow microorganisms to grow under regulated conditions to produce the required output. It promotes ideal growing conditions by enabling control over variables like pH, nutrition concentration, oxygen concentration, temperature, etc.. Since practically everything is mechanised, labour costs are also reduced.

Uses of the Bioreactor Process

• The creation of secondary metabolites such as lovastatin, penicillin, and cyclosporin-A.

• Production of dairy products that undergo fermentation, such as cheese, buttermilk, yoghurt, etc.

• The process through which citric acid, lactic acid, acetic acid, and other organic acids are produced

• production of vital enzymes such as lipase, xylanase, and laccase

• In some cases, the creation of microbial cells rather than their end products takes place in bioreactors. This is seen in the creation of yeast, lactobacillus, single-cell proteins, etc.

• Mammalian cells are also cultured in bioreactors.

• Photobioreactors are used to grow algae and cyanobacteria for biofuels, bioplastics, nutraceuticals, and other products and treat wastewater.