Electrooptical measurements for monitoring metabolite fluxes in acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentations

Characterization of sporulation dynamics of Pseudoclostridium thermosuccinogenes using flow cytometry

Single-cell analysis of microbial population heterogeneity is a fast growing research area in microbiology due to its potential to identify and quantify the impact of subpopulations on microbial performance in, for example, industrial biotechnology, environmental biology, and pathogenesis. Although several tools have been developed, determination of population heterogenity in anaerobic bacteria, especially spore-forming clostridia species has been amply studied. In this study we applied single cell analysis techniques such as flow cytometry (FCM) and fluorescence-assisted cell sorting (FACS) on the spore-forming succinate producer Pseudoclostridium thermosuccinogenes. By combining FCM and FACS with fluorescent staining, we differentiated and enriched all sporulation-related morphologies of P. thermosuccinogenes. To evaluate the presence of metabolically active vegetative cells, a blend of the dyes propidium iodide (PI) and carboxy fluorescein diacetate (cFDA) tested best. Side scatter (SSC-H) in combination with metabolic indicator cFDA dye provided the best separation of sporulation populations. Based on this protocol, we successfully determined culture heterogeneity of P. thermosuccinogenes by discriminating between mature spores, forespores, dark and bright phase endospores, and vegetative cells populations. Henceforth, this methodology can be applied to further study sporulation dynamics and its impact on fermentation performance and product formation by P. thermosuccinogenes.

Electrooptical Determination of Polarizability for On-Line Viability and Vitality Quantification of Lactobacillus plantarum Cultures

The rapid assessment of cell viability is crucial for process optimization, e.g., during media selection, determination of optimal environmental growth conditions and for quality control. In the present study, the cells' electric anisotropy of polarizability (AP) as well as the mean cell length in Lactobacillus plantarum batch and fed-batch fermentations were monitored with electrooptical measurements coupled to fully automated sample preparation. It was examined, whether this measurement can be related to the cells' metabolic activity, and thus represents a suitable process analytical technology. It is demonstrated that the AP is an early indicator to distinguish between suitable and unsuitable growth conditions in case of a poor energy regeneration or cell membrane defects in L. plantarum batch and fed-batch cultivations. It was shown that the applied method allowed the monitoring of physiological and morphological changes of cells in various growth phases in response to a low pH-value, substrate concentration changes, temperature alterations, exposure to air and nutrient limitation. An optimal range for growth in batch mode was achieved, if the AP remained above 25·10⁻²⁸ F·m² and the mean cell length at ~2.5 μm. It was further investigated, in which way the AP develops after freeze-drying of samples, which were taken in different cultivation phases. It was found that the AP increased most rapidly in resuspended samples from the retardation and late stationary phases, while samples from the early stationary phase recovered slowly. Electrooptical measurements provide valuable information about the physiologic and morphologic state of L. plantarum cells, e.g., when applied as starter cultures or as probiotic compounds.

Fueling the future with biomass: Processes and pathways for a sustainable supply of hydrocarbon fuels and biogas

Global economic growth, wealth and security rely upon the availability of cheap, mostly fossil-derived energy and chemical compounds. The replacement by sustainable resources is widely discussed. However, the current state of biotechnological processes usually restricts them to be used as a true alternative in terms of economic feasibility and even sustainability. Among the rare examples of bioprocesses applied for the energetic use of biomass are biogas and bioethanol production. Usually, these processes lack in efficiency and they cannot be operated without the support of legislation. Although they represent a first step towards a greater share of bio-based processes for energy provision, there is no doubt that tremendous improvements in strain and process development, feedstock and process flexibility as well as in the integration of these processes into broader supply and production networks, in this review called smart bioproduction grids, are required to make them economically attractive, robust enough, and wider acceptance by society. All this requires an interdisciplinary approach, which includes the use of residues in closed carbon cycles and issues concerning the process safety. This short review aims to depict some of the promising strategies to achieve an improved process performance as a basis for future application.

Single bacteria movement tracking by online microscopy--a proof of concept study

In this technical report we demonstrate a low-cost online unit allowing movement tracking of flagellated bacteria on a single-cell level during fermentation processes. The system's ability to distinguish different metabolic states (viability) of bacteria by movement velocity was investigated. A flow-through cuvette with automatically adjustable layer thickness was developed. The cuvette can be used with most commercially available laboratory microscopes equipped with 40× amplification and a digital camera. In addition, an automated sample preparation unit and a software module was developed measuring size, moved distance, and speed of bacteria. In a proof of principle study the movement velocities of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42 during three batch fermentation processes were investigated. In this process the bacteria went through different metabolic states, vegetative growth, diauxic shift, vegetative growth after diauxic shift, and sporulation. It was shown that the movement velocities during the different metabolic states significantly differ from each other. Therefore, the described setup has the potential to be used as a bacteria viability monitoring tool. In contrast to some other techniques, such as electro-optical techniques, this method can even be used in turbid production media.

Novel and neglected issues of acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation by clostridia: Clostridium metabolic diversity, tools for process mapping and continuous fermentation systems

This review emphasises the fact that studies of acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation by solventogenic clostridia cannot be limited to research on the strain Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824. Various 1-butanol producing species of the genus Clostridium, which differ in their patterns of product formation and abilities to ferment particular carbohydrates or glycerol, are described. Special attention is devoted to species and strains that do not produce acetone naturally and to the utilisation of lactose, inulin, glycerol and mixtures of pentose and hexose carbohydrates. Furthermore, process-mapping tools based on different principles, including flow cytometry, DNA microarray analysis, mass spectrometry, Raman microscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy and anisotropy of electrical polarisability, which might facilitate fermentation control and a deeper understanding of ABE fermentation, are introduced. At present, the methods with the greatest potential are flow cytometry and transcriptome analysis. Flow cytometry can be used to visualise and capture cells within clostridial populations as they progress through the normal cell cycle, in which symmetric and asymmetric cell division phases alternate. Cell viability of a population of Clostridium pasteurianum NRRL B-598 was determined by flow cytometry. Transcriptome analysis has been used in various studies including the detection of genes expressed in solventogenic phase, at sporulation, in the stress response, to compare expression patterns of different strains or parent and mutant strains, for studies of catabolite repression, and for the detection of genes involved in the transport and metabolism of 11 different carbohydrates. Interestingly, the results of transcriptome analysis also challenge our earlier understanding of the role of the Spo0A regulator in initiation of solventogenesis in C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824. Lastly, the review describes other significant recent discoveries, including the deleterious effects of intracellular formic acid accumulation in C. acetobutylicum DSM 1731 cells on the metabolic switch from acidogenesis to solventogenesis and the development of a high-cell density continuous system using Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4, in which 1-butanol productivity of 7.99 g/L/h was reached.

Electrooptical monitoring of cell polarizability and cell size in aerobic Escherichia coli batch cultivations

The time-dependent development of cell polarizability and length in Escherichia coli batch fermentations were observed at-line with electrooptical measurements. While using a measurement system with fully automated sample preparation, the development of these properties can be observed with a comparable high frequency (six measurements per hour). The polarizability as well as the mean cell length both increase soon after inoculation and then decline from the growth phase on until the stationary phase is reached. Based on the dynamic behavior of polarizability, the growth phase can be divided into four distinct stages. Changes in the cultivation temperature or the pre-cultivation conditions lead to alterations in the development of the polarizability and mean cell length. Based on the frequency disperse of polarizability measured at four different frequencies from 210 to 2,100 kHz, a prediction model is established that is based on the relation of the polarizability to the metabolic activity. Applying multi-linear partial least squares methods (N-PLS), the model is able to predict the specific acetate synthesis and uptake with a root mean square error of prediction of 0.19 (6% of the mean). The method represents a tool for characterization of different stages with respect to microbial metabolic activity and the energy balance during batch cultivations.

Development and application of flow-cytometric techniques for analyzing and sorting endospore-forming clostridia

The study of microbial heterogeneity at the single-cell level is a rapidly growing area of research in microbiology and biotechnology due to its significance in pathogenesis, environmental biology, and industrial biotechnologies. However, the tools available for efficiently and precisely probing such heterogeneity are limited for most bacteria. Here we describe the development and application of flow-cytometric (FC) and fluorescence-assisted cell-sorting techniques for the study of endospore-forming bacteria. We show that by combining FC light scattering (LS) with nucleic acid staining, we can discriminate, quantify, and enrich all sporulation-associated morphologies exhibited by the endospore-forming anaerobe Clostridium acetobutylicum. Using FC LS analysis, we quantitatively show that clostridial cultures commonly perform multiple rounds of sporulation and that sporulation is induced earlier by the overexpression of Spo0A, the master regulator of endospore formers. To further demonstrate the power of our approach, we employed FC LS analysis to generate compelling evidence to challenge the long-accepted view in the field that the clostridial cell form is the solvent-forming phenotype.