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Biomedical subjects

M R Ladisch

Publications and source records attributed to M R Ladisch.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Studies on glucose isomerase from a Streptomyces species.

Production and properties of glucose isomerase from a Co2+-sensitive Streptomyces species were studied. After 4 days of shaking cultivation at 30 degrees C and 200 rpm, a maximum of 1.1 enzyme units per ml of broth was obtained. Cell-free glucose isomerase, obtained from mycelia heat-treated in the presence of 0.5 mM Co2+, showed a 3.5-fold increase in specific activity over enzyme obtained from untreated mycelia. The optimum pH and temperature for the glucose isomerase were 7 to 8 and 80 degrees C, respectively. The Michaelis constant for fructose was 0.40 M. Mg2+ was found to enhance the glucose isomerase activity, whereas the effect of Co2+ on enzyme activity depended on the manner in which the enzyme was prepared. This glucose isomerase was quite heat stable, with a half-life of 120 h at 70 degrees C.

Carbohydrate Epimerases↗

Mechanism and potential applications of bio-ligninolytic systems in a CELSS.

A large amount of inedible plant material, generated as a result of plant growth in a Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS), should be pretreated and converted into forms that can be recycled on earth as well as in space. The main portion of the inedible biomass is lignocellulosic material. Enzymatic hydrolysis of this cellulose would provide sugars for many other uses by recycling carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen through formation of carbon dioxide, heat, and sugars, which are potential foodstuffs. To obtain monosaccharides from cellulose, the protective effect of lignin should be removed. White-rot fungi degrade lignin more extensively and rapidly than other microorganisms. Pleurotus ostreatus degrades lignin effectively, and produces edible and flavorful mushrooms that increase the quality and nutritional value of the diet. This mushroom is also capable of metabolizing hemicellulose, thereby providing a food use of this pentose containing polysaccharide. This study presents the current knowledge of physiology and biochemistry of primary and secondary metabolisms of basidiomycetes, and degradation mechanism of lignin. A better understanding of the ligninolytic activity of white-rot fungi will impact the CELSS Program by providing insights on how edible fungi might be used to recycle the inedible portions of the crops.

Biomass↗

Characterization of the swelling of a size-exclusion gel.

The swelling of a dextran gel, Sephadex G-75, was observed in an aqueous environment at room temperature by a noninvasive technique that uses light microscopy coupled to an image analysis system via a video camera. The rate of swelling was found to follow the Tanaka and Fillmore theory, from which the overall gel diffusion coefficient was estimated as 6.3 x 10(-7) cm2/s. In addition to giving a quantitative measure of gel swelling that could be useful in the mechanical design of liquid chromatography columns, this approach provides data on wet particle size and particle size range, which is needed for the modeling of diffusional and mass transfer effects in size-exclusion chromatography. In this context, key observations are that the gel particles are nearly spherical with an elliptical shape factor of 0.98 (perfect sphere = 1) and that there is little difference between sizes of particles obtained in water, 50 mM Tris-glycine buffer (pH 10.2), and buffer containing 1 mg/mL protein. The diameter of the dry material ranged from 20 to 100 microns, while the hydrated particles had diameters of 40-350 microns. The rate of swelling is rapid, with 50% swelling occurring in about 10 s and swelling to 99% of the final wet particle size being obtained in less than 90 s.

Chemical Phenomena↗

Recombinant human insulin.

Insulin is a well-characterized peptide that can be produced by recombinant DNA technology for human therapeutic use. A brief overview of insulin production from both traditional mammalian pancreatic extraction and recombinant bacterial and yeast systems is presented, and detection techniques, including electrophoresis, are reviewed. Analytical systems for insulin separation are principally based on reversed-phase chromatography, which resolves the deamidation product(s) (desamido insulin) of insulin, proinsulin, and insulin. Process-scale separation is a multistep process and includes ion exchange, reversed-phase, and size exclusion chromatography. Advantages and/or disadvantages of various separation approaches, as described by the numerous literature references on insulin purification, are presented.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Simulation of diauxic production of cephalosporin C by Cephalosporium acremonium: lag model for fed-batch fermentation.

We extend a previously reported model (Chu, W.B.; Constantinides, A. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 1988, 32, 277-288) for the batch fermentation of cephalosporin C under the diauxic growth of Cephalosporium acremonium on glucose and sucrose to a fed-batch system. For this purpose, a novel lag model is proposed for diauxie, which has two functional forms, each embodying the dependence of lag on total cell mass and secondary substrate concentration. This lag model is applicable for batch simulations for arbitrary initial glucose and sucrose concentrations. We used the previously reported batch data to perform locally optimized fed-batch simulations. When applied to fed-batch fermentations, multiple lag times were accounted for. These studies showed that fed-batch fermentations (under the restriction that cell mass concentration did not exceed 25 g/L) could be more productive than simple batch runs. A representative result for a glucose-pulse fed-batch run at optimal cephalosporin production is a productivity of 4.22 mg of cephalosporin C/(L.h) and a yield of 9.25 mg of cephalosporin C/g of total sugar used.

Acremonium↗

Characterization of dicarboxylic acids for cellulose hydrolysis.

In this paper, we show that dilute maleic acid, a dicarboxylic acid, hydrolyzes cellobiose, the repeat unit of cellulose, and the microcrystalline cellulose Avicel as effectively as dilute sulfuric acid but with minimal glucose degradation. Maleic acid, superior to other carboxylic acids reported in this paper, gives higher yields of glucose that is more easily fermented as a result of lower concentrations of degradation products. These results are especially significant because maleic acid, in the form of maleic anhydride, is widely available and produced in large quantities annually.

Acetic Acid↗

Chromatography for rapid buffer exchange and refolding of secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor.

A DEAE-cellulose stationary phase in a rolled configuration was used to separate recombinant secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (rSLPI) from denaturants and reducing agents (3 M guanidine-HCl and 5 mM DTT) in less than 5 min to promote refolding of the protein to an active form. The mobile phase consisted of buffer and 500 mM NaCl, where NaCl suppressed binding of protein to this stationary phase. Separation of an initial concentration of 2 mg/mL protein from the other constituents resulted in 96% recovery of the rSLPI at an average concentration of 1.28 mg/mL. When incubated for 4 h at 20 degrees C, the fractionated rSLPI gave a 46% yield of properly refolded protein. The protein concentration was 6.4 times higher than that reported in a previously published method, where refolding was carried out by diluting the mixture of protein, denaturants, and reducing agents by a factor of 10. The results show that a combination of rapid chromatographic separation over a cellulosic stationary phase followed by protein refolding will significantly enhance process throughput by minimizing tankage, water requirements, and process time.

Chromatography, DEAE-Cellulose↗