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The Design of Fermentation and Biological Assay Procedures for Assessment of Penicillin Production in Populations of Aspergillus nidulans
Author(s) -
MERRICK M. J.,
CATEN C. E.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of applied bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 0021-8847
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1975.tb00512.x
Subject(s) - aspergillus nidulans , replicate , fermentation , bioassay , biology , penicillin , laboratory flask , microbiology and biotechnology , computational biology , biochemical engineering , biological system , chemistry , food science , genetics , antibiotics , mathematics , statistics , engineering , gene , mutant
The design of shake flask fermentations and biological assay procedures for the assessment of penicillin titres in populations of Aspergillus nidulans strains is described. Consideration of the amount and stage of replication and the arrangement of the culture filtrates on the assay plate led to the adoption of a general procedure where strains are replicated in 2, 3 or 4 flasks, depending upon the precision required. Each flask is tested using only one inhibition zone and the zones for one replicate set of strains are completely randomized on one assay plate. This experimental design does not require a high degree of statistical competence for interpretation of the results and it may be easily adapted to accommodate a variety of experimental sizes or to allow any required level of discrimination between strains to be achieved. The general approach and principles may be applied to many large scale, low precision assays carried out in fermentation research.