Assessment of the scalability of a microtiter plate system for screening of oleaginous microorganisms

• Published in: Applied microbiology and biotechnology Vol. 102; no. 11; pp. 4915 - 4925
• Main Authors: Kosa, Gergely, Vuoristo, Kiira S., Horn, Svein Jarle, Zimmermann, Boris, Afseth, Nils Kristian, Kohler, Achim, Shapaval, Volha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-06-2018; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied Microbial and Cell Physiology; Biological effects; Biomass; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Bioreactors; Biotechnology; Coefficient of variation; Consumption; Crypthecodinium cohnii; Cultivation; Dinoflagellida - growth & development; Dinoflagellida - metabolism; Equipment and supplies; Evaluation; Fermentation; Filamentous microorganisms; Fungi; Glucose; High-throughput screening; High-throughput screening (Biochemical assaying); High-Throughput Screening Assays - instrumentation; High-Throughput Screening Assays - standards; Inoculation; Laboratory equipment; Life Sciences; Lipids; Metabolic engineering; Methods; Microalgae; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Microbiota - physiology; Microorganisms; Molecular biology; Mortierella - genetics; Mortierella - growth & development; Mortierella alpina; Mucor - growth & development; Mucor - metabolism; Mucor circinelloides; Physiological aspects; Reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; Screening; Shear stress; High-throughput screening; Oleaginous microorganism; Duetz-microtiter plate system; Scalability; Bioreactors
• ISSN: 0175-7598; 1432-0614
• DOI: 10.1007/s00253-018-8920-x

Recent developments in molecular biology and metabolic engineering have resulted in a large increase in the number of strains that need to be tested, positioning high-throughput screening of microorganisms as an important step in bioprocess development. Scalability is crucial for performing reliable screening of microorganisms. Most of the scalability studies from microplate screening systems to controlled stirred-tank bioreactors have been performed so far with unicellular microorganisms. We have compared cultivation of industrially relevant oleaginous filamentous fungi and microalga in a Duetz-microtiter plate system to benchtop and pre-pilot bioreactors. Maximal glucose consumption rate, biomass concentration, lipid content of the biomass, biomass, and lipid yield values showed good scalability for
Mucor circinelloides
(less than 20% differences) and
Mortierella alpina
(less than 30% differences) filamentous fungi. Maximal glucose consumption and biomass production rates were identical for
Crypthecodinium cohnii
in microtiter plate and benchtop bioreactor. Most likely due to shear stress sensitivity of this microalga in stirred bioreactor, biomass concentration and lipid content of biomass were significantly higher in the microtiter plate system than in the benchtop bioreactor. Still, fermentation results obtained in the Duetz-microtiter plate system for
Crypthecodinium cohnii
are encouraging compared to what has been reported in literature. Good reproducibility (coefficient of variation less than 15% for biomass growth, glucose consumption, lipid content, and pH) were achieved in the Duetz-microtiter plate system for
Mucor circinelloides
and
Crypthecodinium cohnii
.
Mortierella alpina
cultivation reproducibility might be improved with inoculation optimization. In conclusion, we have presented suitability of the Duetz-microtiter plate system for the reproducible, scalable, and cost-efficient high-throughput screening of oleaginous microorganisms.