Open AccessDisposable bioreactors for plant liquid cultures at Litre‐scale
Author(s) -
Eibl Regine,
Werner Sören,
Eibl Dieter
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
engineering in life sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.547
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1618-2863
pISSN - 1618-0240
DOI - 10.1002/elsc.200800102
Subject(s) - bioreactor , biochemical engineering , process engineering , microbiology and biotechnology , scale up , biology , cell culture , hairy root culture , process (computing) , somatic embryogenesis , industrial and production engineering , transformation (genetics) , computer science , engineering , botany , embryo , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , agrobacterium , genetics , gene , embryogenesis , operating system , physics , classical mechanics
Abstract Driven by the demands of the market and the manufacturing industry, disposable bioreactors have gained in importance in cell culture‐based processes during the last 10 years. Today they are widely accepted in R&D and also in manufacturing where process simplicity, safety and flexibility have top priority. Although disposable bioreactors are mainly used for cell expansions, glycoprotein secretions and virus generations realised with mammalian and insect cell lines, there are several reports delineating their suitability for the cultivation of plant cell and tissue cultures. This review describes the current disposable bioreactor types suitable for growing plant cell suspensions and organ cultures (hairy roots, meristematic clusters, somatic embryos) at Litre‐scale. Based on a definition of the term “disposable bioreactor”, a categorisation of the prevalent types for plant liquid cultures is presented. We describe the bioreactor regimes, working principles and bioengineering parameters of mechanically and pneumatically agitated bag bioreactors, which have advantages of process scalability and efficiency. Furthermore, results from the literature and data from our own research (obtained during production of undifferentiated bioactive cells, expressions of secondary metabolites and glycoproteins, and micropropagations of plant tissues) are discussed.