Research related to Industrial Biotechnology

Contents

· Introduction

· History

· Current applications

· Future aspects

· References

· Introduction-Industrial biotechnology

Industrial or white biotechnology uses biological agents (e.g microorganisms and enzymes) to produce goods for industry, including chemicals, plastics, food, agricultural and pharmaceutical products and energy carriers.

· History

The oldest fermentation:

· Current Applications of Biotechnology in Industry and Healthcare:

1. Improvement in Fermentation Products:

This achievement can be done in different ways — by selection of improved strain, by transgene application into the microorganism, by using cheaper raw material, by manipulation of medium constituent as well as by simulation of the reactor (adjustment of different cultural conditions like pH, temp., etc.).

Products of microbial fermentation include primary meta­bolites, secondary metabolites, enzymes, pro­teins, capsular polysaccharides and cellular biomass (single cell protein).

2. Microbial Production of Synthetic Fuels:

Important fuels can be produced by using many microbes which include ethanol, methane, hydro­gen and hydrocarbons. Zymomonas mobilis produces ethanol twice as rapidly as yeasts from carbohydrates. Some industrially beneficial microbes, such as, clostridia, bacteriodes, sclenomonas, butyrovibrio, etc., can ferment the waste material into methane, that is used in several industrial sectors.

3. Microbial Mining or Bioleaching:

The process of bioleaching recovers metals from ores which are not suitable for direct smelting because of their low content. The biobleaching process is applicable in the case of uranium ore. Thiobacillus ferroxidans is the commonest organism which is involved in case of copper and uranium ore processing.

4. Single-cell proteins and biomass production using beneficial microbes

Microbial product of commer­cial significance is the microbial biomass (the microbial cells themselves), e.g., commercially produced yeast cells, bacteria (Methylophilus methylotrophus), flavoring cheese from fungal biomass (Penicillium roquefortii).

Single cell pro­teins are the dried cells of microorganisms such as algae, certain bacteria, yeasts, moulds and some higher fungi. The protein percentages for various single cell proteins are high.

5. Production of Enzymes and Human Proteins:

Bulk of the enzymes is obtained from microbial source by fermentation process. On the other hand, there are several enzymes, extracted from plant sources, such as papain from Carica papaya, bromelain from Ananas cosmosus, ficin from Ficus glabrata. These enzymes are used as protein hydrolysate in beer industry, in meat tenderizing, and also have clinical applications, such as, papain is used in medications to prevent heartburn and bromelain is used in cough syrups, ficin is also used in the manufacturing of medicine to get rid of intestinal worms and for digestion as well.

6. Production of Secondary Metabolites from Cultured Plant Cell:

In recent years it has been shown that spectrum of compounds can be produced in culture which is beyond the ability of whole plants. By using different precursors sev­eral novel compounds of biomedical importance can be obtained.

Examples:

Serpentine can be obtained from Catharanthus

Pseudoephedrine from Ephedra.

Digoxin, a cardiovascular drug, produced from digitoxin obtained from Digitalis lanata (Plant).

7. Molecular Farming for Healthcare Pro­ducts:

Transgenic plants Pan be used as ‘factories’ for production of speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals like sugars, fatty acids, wax materials as well as antibodies, edible vaccines. The production of human antibody from plant seeds is one of the hallmarks of the field of industrial biotechnology research.

· Future Prospects

The field of industrial biotechnology has moved rapidly in recent years as a combined result of international political desire, especially in the case of biofuels, bio-products and unprecedented progress in molecular biology research that has supplied the enabling technologies.

Right now, the industrial biotechnology has reached to a level where the science and bio-ethics rules and principles are really needed to be focused. However, the biofuels developmental program has been established in several countries, but, on the other hand, there is an urge to develop a framework for the production of bioplastics and other biobased chemicals, such as bio-colorants or bio-pigments to replace the use of synthetic pigments that most often are harmful to use. Some of the synthetic pigments are even carcinogenic, hence needed to be replaced. Similarly, the biorefinery industry has also an urge to be established, as being an agricultural country, the attributes of the industrial biotechnology has to be utilized at least in the sector of biorefinery, due to being profitable.

As Pakistan is an agricultural country, the agro-waste is one of the cheapest raw materials for the production of ethanol and xanthan gum. Both of the products exhibit a wide-range of applications. Ethanol is widely used for sterility purposes in hospitals, research and other industries, besides other processes, such as, ethanol is also used as a precipitant for the down streaming of microbial products (e.g. xanthan gum, enzymes, etc) in the industrial biotechnology processes. However, mainly, the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food industries utilize the xanthan gum as an emulsifier, thickener or stabilizer. While, there are diverse types of xanthan gum that exhibit different sort of applications. Another type of xanthan gum that is recently isolated from Strenotrophomonas maltophila possesses UV-resistance feature, that can be used in UV-resistant creams or sun-block creams. Also, low molecular weight xanthan gum, isolated from a strain of Xanthomonas campestris is used as a dietary fibre, and it is capable of absorbing heavy metals such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), as well.

· References

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