Open AccessAn automated home-built low-cost fermenter suitable for large-scale bacterial expression of proteins in Escherichia coli
Author(s) -
Uwe Riek,
Roland Tuerk,
Theo Wallimann,
Uwe Schlattner,
Dietbert Neumann
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
biotechniques/biotechniques
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.617
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1940-9818
pISSN - 0736-6205
DOI - 10.2144/000112830
Subject(s) - escherichia coli , industrial fermentation , protein expression , bacteria , biology , scale (ratio) , microbiology and biotechnology , enterobacteriaceae , escherichia coli proteins , chemistry , computational biology , biochemistry , genetics , fermentation , gene , geography , cartography
We have developed an automated fermentation system for cost-efficient upscaling of protein expression in bacteria. The system, built for use by nonbiotechnologists, can be assembled mostly from standard laboratory equipment and allows a largely unattended growth of bacteria to OD 25 (at 600 nm) in a 12 L vessel. The typical yield of 250-350 g of wet weight cell pellet per run, which is equivalent to the biomass obtained from 250 shake flask cultures containing 400 mL Luria-Broth medium each, facilitates the production of large amounts of purified recombinant protein without the laborious need for optimization of expression and purification conditions.