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Using the rate of respiration to monitor events in the infection of Escherichia coli cultures by bacteriophage T4
Author(s) -
Sauvageau Dominic,
Allain Béatrice,
Cooper David G.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
biotechnology progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.572
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6033
pISSN - 8756-7938
DOI - 10.1002/btpr.365
Subject(s) - bacteriophage , escherichia coli , respiration , biology , respiration rate , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , botany , gene
The growing interest in applications of bacteriophages creates a need for improvements in the production processes. Continuous monitoring of the phage production is an essential aspect of any control strategy and, at present, there is no completely satisfactory option. The approach presented here uses IR‐spectrometry to continuously measure the rate of respiration (CO 2 released) of Escherichia coli infected by phage T4 at various multiplicities of infection (MOI). Within the trends in these data, or in other aspects of the rate of respiration, it was possible to reliably and reproducibly identify five features that reflected specific events in the infection process. These included two events in the host cell apparent growth rate and events in the magnitude of the host cell density, in the measurement of OD 600 or in the specific rate of respiration. All of these correlations were within 95% confidence showing that they are suitable for the monitoring and control of E. coli populations infected by phage T4. This method is reliable, cheap, and can be operated in‐line and in real time. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2010