While genomics (the set of experimental and computational tools that allows the blueprints of life to be read) opens the doors to a more rational approach to the design and use of living cells to bring about desirable chemical transformations, genomics is, by itself, insufficient. We need tools that allow us to relate genomic and molecular information to cellular physiology and then to the response of a population of cells. We propose the development of hybrid computer cellular models. In such models genomics and chemical detail for a cellular subsystem (e.g. pathogenesis) is embedded in a coarse-grain cell model. Such a construct allows the quantitative and explicit linkage of genomic detail to cell physiology to the extracellular environment. To illustrate the principles involved we are constructing a model for a minimal cell. A minimal cell is a bacterial cell with the fewest number of genes necessary to sustain life as a free living microbe.

Microbiology research must be conducted in a fashion that assures the health and well being of the researcher and the safety of the community. This lecture raises awareness of biosafety issues and discusses how the interaction of the pathogen being studied, the person conducting the research, and the practices being used can be manipulated to assure safety. The characterization of pathogens into Risk Groups, how these relate to Biosafety Levels, and the personal practices and laboratory design criteria associated with each Biosafety Level are explained. The importance of preventing or containing aerosols, limiting opportunities for cross-contamination, and taking a flexible multi-component approach to biosafety are emphasized.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae KNU5377 is a thermotolerant strain, which can ferment ethanol from wasted papers and starch at 40$^{\circ}C$ with the almost same rate as at 30$^{\circ}C$. This strain showed alcohol fermentation ability to convert wasted papers 200 g (w/v) to ethanol 8.4% (v/v) at 40$^{\circ}C$, meaning that 8.4% ethanol is acceptable enough to ferment in the industrial economy. As well, all kinds of starch that are using in the industry were converted into ethanol at 40$^{\circ}C$ with the almost same rate as at 30$^{\circ}C$. Hyperthermic cell killing kinetics and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed that exponentially growing cells of this yeast strain KNU5377 were more thermotolerant than those of S. cerevisiae ATCC24858 used as a control. This intrinsic thermotolernace did not result from the stability of entire cellular components but possibly from that of a particular target. Heat shock induced similar results in whole cell DSC profiles of both strains and the accumulation of trehalose in the cells of both strains, but the trehalose contents in the strain KNU5377 were 2.6 fold higher than that in the control strain. On the contrary to the trehalose level, the neutral trehalase activity in the KNU5377 cells was not changed after the heat shock. This result made a conclusion that though the trehalose may stabilize cellular components, the surplus of trehalose in KNU5377 strain was not essential for stabilization of whole cellular components. A constitutively thermotolerant yeast, S. cerevisiae KNU5377, was compared with a relatively thermosensitive control, S. cerevisiae ATCC24858, by assaying the fluidity and proton ATPase on the plasma membrane. Anisotropic values (r) of both strains were slightly increased by elevating the incubation temperatures from 25$^{\circ}C$ to 37$^{\circ}C$ when they were aerobically cultured for 12 hours in the YPD media, implying the membrane fluidity was decreased. While the temperature was elevated up to 40$^{\circ}C$, the fluidity was not changed in the KNU5377 cell, but rather increased in the control. This result implies that the plasma membrane of the KNU5377 cell can be characterized into the more stabilized state than control. Besides, heat shock decreased the fluidity in the control strain, but not in the KNU5377 strain. This means also there's a stabilization of the plasma membrane in the KNU5377 cell. Furthermore, the proton ATPase assay indicated the KNU5377 cell kept a relatively more stabilized glucose metabolism at high temperature than the control cell. Therefore, the results were concluded that the stabilization of plasma membrane and growth at high temperature for the KNU5377 cell. Genome wide transcription analysis showed that the heat shock responses were very complex and combinatory in the KNU5377 cell. Induced by the heat shock, a number of genes were related with the ubiquitin mediated proteolysis, metallothionein (prevent ROS production from copper), hsp27 (88-fold induced remarkably, preventing the protein aggregation and denaturation), oxidative stress response (to remove the hydrogen peroxide), and etc.

The technology of Solid-State-Fermentation (SSF) with corn straw by Pichia ohmeri T021 was studied in this article. After being crushed, the corn straw powder was added into vitriol solutions to hydrolysis, which the quality proportion of corn straw: water: vitriol (98%) is 20:80:1. The mixtures was incubated at 120$^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour, and the hydrolysis rate reached 19%. Following, the mixture was adjusted to pH 4.5 by sodium carbonate and added cellulase (25IFPU/g). The hydrolysis rate reached 15% after the mixture was incubated at 50$^{\circ}C$ for 25h. The mixture which hydrolysed by vitriol was inoculated by Pichia ohmeri T021 (5${\times}10^7$cell/g) and added cellulase (25 IFPU/g) at the same time. The ethanol yield reached 2.99g per 100 gram substrate after the fermenting grains was incubated at 33$^{\circ}C$, pH 4.5 for 5 days.

The formation of insoluble aggregation of the recombinant kringle fragment of human apolipoprotein(a), rhLK8, in endoplasmic reticulum was identified as the rate-limiting step in the rhLK8 secretion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To analyze the protein secretion pathway, some of yeast genes closely related to protein secretion was rationally selected and their oligomer DNA were arrayed on the chip. The expression profiling of these genes during the induction of rhLK8 in fermentor fed-batch cultures revealed that several foldases including pdi1 gene were up-regulated in the early induction phase, whereas protein transport-related genes were up-regulated in the late induction phase. The coexpression of pdi1 gene increased rhLK8-folding capacity. Hence, the secretion efficiency of rhLK8 in the strain overexpressing pdi1 gene increased by 2-fold comparing in its parental strain. The oligomer DNA chip arrayed with minimum number of the genes selected in this study could be generally applicable to the monitoring system for the heterologous protein secretion and expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. With the optimization of fed-batch culture conditions and the alteration of genetic background of host, we obtained extracellular rhLK8 at higher yields than with Pichia pastoris systems, which was a 25-fold increased secretion level of rhLK8 compared to the secretion level at the initiation of this study.

Guanosine fermentation process can be well predicted and analyzed by the proposed state equations describing the dynamic change of a bioreactor. Pyruvate and alanine were found to be characteristically accumulated along with the decline of the guanosine formation rate during the mid-late phase of the process. The enzymological study of the main pathways in glucose catabolism and the quantitative stoichiometric calculation of metabolic flux distribution revealed that it was entirely attributed to the shift of metabolic flux from hexose monophosphate (HMP) pathway to glycolysis pathway. The process optimization by focusing on the restore of the shift of metabolic flux was conducted and the overcoming the decrease of oxygen uptake rate (OUR) was taken as the relevant factor of the trans-scale operation. As a result, the production of guanosinewas increased from 17 g/L to over 34 g/I.

A cellulolytic fungus isolated from Agave plantation in northeastern Thailand was identified as Acrophialophora nainiana. The fungus was capable of growing at pH between 3 - 7 and 25 - 45 $^{\circ}C$, with the optimum conditions at pH 5.0 and 40 $^{\circ}C$. The wild isolate produced cellulases, comprising of exoglucanase (0.019 U/mg protein), endoglucanase (0.366 U/mg protein), and ${\beta}$-glucosidase (0.001 U/mg protein). Mutations with UV and NTG produced the UV 10-2 mutant with cellulases activities including exoglucanase (0.093 U/mg protein), endoglucanase (0.585 U/mg protein), and ${\beta}$-glucosidase (0.013 U/mg protein). Purification of the enzymes with ultrafiltration, ammonium sulfate precipitation, and ion-exchange chromatography yielded the maximal cellulase specific activities of 2.736 U/mg protein (exoglucanase), 0.235 U/mg protein (endoglucanase), and 0.008 U/mg protein (${\beta}$-glucosidase). The mutant's cellulases were the most active at pH 5.0 and 60 $^{\circ}C$. Ion-exchange chromatography revealed that A. nainiana UV 10-2 cellulases were comprised of two peaks with one peak showing the single endoglucanase activity while the other peak showed a mixture of the three enzyme activities. Production of A. nainiana UV 10-2 cellulases using banana leaf stalk as the sole carbon source gave comparable yields to that of the pure ${\alpha}$-cellulose. The enzymes were used in the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of plant residue (Coix aquatica) along with Kluveromyces marxianus to produce ethanol. Moreover, when the enzymes were used in the bioscouring process of fabric, the desiravle traits of textile processing including immediate water absorbency, increased in whiteness and reduction of yellowness of the treated fabric were observed.