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Microbial Biotechnology - Coggle Diagram
Microbial Biotechnology
Secondary Metabolism
Altering metabolism under stress
- Growth/ nutrient limitation
- Can be specific growth phases
- May promote survival
Production and scale
Usually large, organic molecules
- Synthesis of tetracycline needs >72 enzymatic steps
- 300 genes involved with biosynthetic regulation
Biopolymers
Production
Microbially produced polymers
- Cell growth and division
- Modify texture in food, gelling agents
- Polynucleotides, polypeptides, polysaccharides
Use
- Paints
- Absorbents
- Plastics production
- Food thickeners
- Drilling lubricants
Asphalt
Xanthan Gum
Lab Grown
- Precipitated in alcohol, dried, milled
- Thickening Agents
BT Toxin
- Doesn't accumulate in soil
- Used in Bt-corn, potato, cotton
- Ingested by insects (alkaline hindgut causes fragmentation, releases protoxin)
- Active toxin enters plasma membrane, causing cell lysis
Recombinant Products
Stanley and Cohen - first transplanted genes
Why we use Recomb-Insulin
- Ethical concerns
- Uncontaminated
- Can engineer new types to modify characteristics
CRISPR-CAS9
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
- Repeated palindromic sequences, separating spacer sequences from invading viruses
- Bacterial defence - detects/ cleaves foreign viral DNA
Usage
- Perform gene mutations
- Allows DNA editing (needs Cas9 and g-RNA)
- gRNA directs Cas9 to specific site
- Cas9 Unwinds and Cleaves strands
Application
- Rapid diagnostic tool
- Modification of genes
- Killing cancer
- Removes malaria
Bioremedation
Using bacteria, fungi/ plants to reverse contamination
2 Main types:
Biostimulation - Nutrients added to contaminants to encourage activity of existing bacteria. Disappearance is monitered
Bioaugmentation - Microbes cleaning specific contaminant added to soil/ water. More common/ successful
Benefits
- Cost effective
- Capitalises natural process
- Minimises environmental disturbance
Limitations
- Often fails due to microbes' failure to thrive in situ
May also be:
- Lack of nutrients
- Competition
- Immobility of organism
- Contaminant concentration low
- Organism use other substrates