Microorganisms commercial importance

A number of scientific consortia have taken np the formidable endeavor to seqnence the genomes of Homo sapiens and a nnmber of medically and commercially important microorganisms. Some of the seqnence projects have been completed (Table 5.9) and this provides a wealth of information which can be of nse for biocatalytic applications. 

Some microorganisms can synthesize appreciable amounts of fat during growth on various substrates, including whey. However, because of an abundant supply of plant animal fats, fermentations to produce fat have not become of commercial importance. The reader who is interested in this aspect of fermentation should consult the discussion by Marth (1974) for further details. 

The principal commercially important products made from the microorganisms previously mentioned include ... 

A number of dicarboximide compounds are also of commercial importance. Captan and folpet probably comprise the largest uses of this class. In general, these compounds are subject to breakdown by soil microorganisms and do not appear likely to be retained in the environment to any significant degree. 

Unlike mammalian cells, which cannot synthesize all amino acids, SILAC is not well suited to studying the protein/peptide levels of microorganisms, most of which are prototrophic for all amino acids. Application of SILAC in such cases is mostly restricted to auxotrophic strains, which renders the technique ineffective for the proteome analysis of many commercially important microbes. Native SILAC (nSILAC), a recently developed modification of... 

Although historically most useful antibiotics have come from spore forming microorganisms, marine organisms have yielded the candidate antitumor peptide didemnin B [77327-50-0] (2) and cytostatic peptides such as the patellamides (3). Many of the marine peptides have little or no antimicrobial activity. Antibacterial peptides called magainins are found in frog skin (4) and antibacterial proteins called defensins are found in mammalian white blood cells (5). The commercially important insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringensis (6) are not discussed herein nor are the numerous peptide siderophores (7,8), which, except for the albomycins (9), are usually not antimicrobial. 

If this simple means of cell immobilisation were applied to other microorganisms it could well result in further immobilised cell reactors of this sort, for the selective production of commercially important biochemical and pharmaceutical compounds. Magnetic forms of the hydrous... 

Mutant strains of macrolide-producing microorganisms, in which different steps of macrolide biosynthesis have been blocked, have yielded a wide variety of new compounds representing biosynthetic intermediates and shunt metabolites. This approach has been employed especially with Streptomyces fradiae, producer of the commercially important veterinary antibiotic tylosin three groups have independently isolated and identified many fermentation products which differ from tylosin in the number or type of saccharides and/or degree of... 

Cytochrome P-450 is a hydroxylase enzyme system that can catalyze several commercially important regio- and stereospecific hydroxylation and epoxidation reactions. These typical monooxygenase enzymes require the transfer of two electrons to the heme active center per molecule of substrate converted. Biochemically, electron transfer to or from the enzyme is often linked to the electron flow in the physiological cycle of a cell or microorganism through expensive co-factors like NAD and NADP+. 

Most carbohydrates exist in the form of polysaccharides. Polysaccharides give stmcture to the cell walls of land plants (cellulose), seaweeds, and some microorganisms and store energy (starch in plants and glycogen in animals). They are important in the human diet and in many commercial apphcations. 

Biotechnology Commercial processes dial use living organisms, or substances from diose organisms, to make or modify a product. This includes techniques used for improving die characteristics of economically important plants and animals and for die development of microorganisms to act on die environment. 

Insulin is one of the important pharmaceutical products produced commercially by genetically engineered bactera. Before this development, commercial insulin was isolated from animal pancreatic tissue. Microbial insulin has been available since 1982. The human insulin gene is introduced into a bacterium like E. coli. Two of the major advantages of insulin production by microorganisms are that the resultant insulin is chemically identical to human insulin, and it can be produced in unlimited quantities. 

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