Bioprocess Kinetics and Optimization of Recombinant Fermentation: Genetic and Engineering Approaches

When a recombinant fermentation process is to be optimized and/or improved on a rational basis, many important parameters closely related to the cellular physiology and metabolism, genetic characteristics of the recombinant having foreign DNA, bioreactor environmental and operational conditions and all of their effects on productivity must be well understood and appropriate bioprocess strategy must be developed. In recombinant fermentation systems, there is a heterogeneous cell population consisting of productive plasmid-harboring cells and non-productive plasmid-free cells. Their cell population dynamics and fraction of productive cell population must be understood. Determination of key genetic parameters and assessment of their effects on the heterogeneous cell population and the productivity of genetically engineered recombinant organisms are very important to the design, control, and optimization of large- scale recombinant fermentation processes [1].