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1
Q

What are the 5 major groups of microbes exploited in industrial microbiology, and if specified what are they used to produce?

A

Actinomycetes - antibiotics and amino acids
Cyanobacteria - potential renewable food stuffs in future
Proteobacteria

Fungal yeasts
Filamentous fungi

2
Q

What 4 possible products from microbes do we use?

A
MIcrobial cells (broken up or whole)
Products from cells:
Enzymes 
Primary metabolic products
2ndry metabolic products
3
Q

Examples of specific products from cells because I know how much you love your examples

A
enzymes  - glucose isomerase 
Antibiotics  - penicillen 
food additives - amino acids
alcohol - ethanol
chemicals - citric acid
4
Q

Name 4 uses of microbial cells as a whole, give details where poss

A

food stuffs (Quorn)
Whole cell biotransformation - ‘cell factories’ (often living but not growing cells)
Why good: work at low temps, few side products, normally specific, grown in aqueous rather than organic solvents. If whole metabolic pathways are undisturbed.
Removing nuclear waste - resting cells of Desulfovibrio desulfricans precipitate 99Tc (waste product of nuclear fuel cycle with long half life) and immobilise it
Steriod production and purification - Rhizopus Arrhizus and Curvularia Lunata covert basic (cheap steroid) to cortisol

5
Q

What are the 2 ways to get enzymes from microbes?

A

Direct extraction

expressed as recombinant protein

6
Q

Main benefits of enzymes

A

specificity
efficiency under optimum conditions
producing them, is very rapid
growth conditions and materials inexpensive

7
Q

Define bulk enzyme

A

partially purified

8
Q

Give 2 examples of them and their uses

A

Detergenets - proteases and lipases
clothe colour improvement - cellulases (strips off outer layer)
Sweet making - Intvertases

9
Q

What’s the other type of enzyme used, other than bulk

A

purified recombinant enzyme

10
Q

Examples of recombination purified enzymes and uses

A

Restriction endonucleases - used to make other enzymes and proteins
Glucose oxidase - test blood sugar - diagnostics
cholesterol esterase - monitoring cholesterol levels - diagnostics

11
Q

When are primary metabolites made?

A

majority of the time in the cell’s life cycle

12
Q

4 most important primary metabolites

A

purine nucleotides
vitamins
organic acids
amino acids

13
Q

Main use of amino acids and the 3 main required

A

food additives

Glutamate, lysine, tryptophan

14
Q

What is primarily used for making aa’s

A

gram +ve bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum

15
Q

Why must 2ndry metabs be grown in particular ways or genetically engineered?

A

only produced at particular time in cell life, often in periods of stress

16
Q

What is the main example of a biopolymer and it’s use in the EU

A

bacterial exopollysaccharide xanthan gum - a thickner

17
Q

What’s exg made by?

A

Xanthomonas sp. and X. campestris (in lab) as a defense mechanism

18
Q

properties of exg

A

soluble in hot or cold water, high viscosity at low concs, secreted (-therefore extraction theoretically easy but actually very viscous so tricky)

19
Q

What did Fleming originally observe to discover penecillin

A

Penecillium notatum killed Staph. a.

20
Q

How did scientists get around the problem of low yield produced by P. notatum

A

Discovered P. chrysogenum

21
Q

Where were more antibiotics discovered and of those that they make what’s the most well known AB called?

A

soil bacteria collectively called Actinomycetes.

Streptomycin

22
Q

How are new antibiotics being discovered and made?

A
  • metagenomics used to find novel clusters of genes for antibiotic synthesis. These are then expressed in a heterologous host and screen for new antibiotics.
  • use gene shuffling to biologically modify ab
23
Q

How are antibiotics made currently?

A

fermentation for natural and semi synthetic abs.