• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.129-133
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• 1995

Continuous fermentations were performed in order to investigate the effect of culture condition on the yeast RNA accumulation and autolysis efficiency. The content of intracellular RNA increased with increasing dilution rate, showing its maximum value of 14.8% at D=0.35 $h^{-1}$. Also, both RNA productivity and specific RNA productivity tended to increase with the increase of dilution rate. The maximum biomass was obtained at $30^{\circ}C$ in the fixed dilution rate of 0.2 $h^{-1}$, whereas the maximum RNA content appeared at the lowest temperature experimented. Growth rate affected significantly on the yeast autolysis efficiency such that the extraction ratio(TN/TN) increased with increasing growth rate, whereas the hydrolysis ratio(AN/TN) was reversed. On the other hand, its efficiency was little affected by cultivation temperature.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.593-596
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• 2007

In this study, we describe the development of a simple and efficient method for cell lysis via the insertion of a bacteriophage lambda lysis gene cluster into the pET22b expression vector in the following order; the T7 promoter, a gene for a target protein intended for production, Sam7 and R. This insertion of R and Sam7 into pET22b exerted no detrimental effects on cellular growth or the production of a target protein. The induction of the T7 promoter did not in itself result in the autolysis of cells in culture but the harvested cells were readily broken by freezing and thawing. We compared the efficiency of the cell lysis technique by freezing and thawing to that observed with sonication, and determined that both methods completely disintegrated the cells and released proteins into the solution. With our modification of pET22b, the lysis of cells became quite simple, efficient, and reliable. This strategy may prove useful for a broad variety of applications, particularly in experiments requiring extensive cell breakage, including library screening and culture condition exploration, in addition to protein purification.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.533-539
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• 1995

An autolytic system based on a thermally inducible phage lambda, λHL1, has been applied for the recovery of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) [PHB] from a recombinant Escherichia coli XL1-Blue, harbouring a plasmid (pSYL105) containing the Alcaligenes eutrophus PHB biosynthesis genes. The lytic capability ofλHL1 was evaluated in flask culture for both lysogens, XL1-Blue (λHL1) and XL1-Blue (λHL1, pSYL105). When the optical density of culture at 600nm(OD600) reached 0.2, cell lysis was induced by increasing the temperature from $30^{\circ}C$ to $42^{\circ}C$. Most cells of XL1-Blue ($\lambda$HL1) were lysed by the autolytic system in an hour after the thermal induction, while the lytic efficiency was slightly lower for XLl-Blue (λHL1, pSYL105). The existence of pSYL105 in cells seemed to inhibit, to some extent, the lytic capability of λHL1 even at low PHB content. The lylic efficiency remarkably decreased as the induction was delayed to allow PHB accumulation. When a chemical induction using 2% (v/v) chloroform was introduced after an hours of thermal induction, we could obtain a good lytic efficiency.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 1997

To improve the detection of methicillin resistant staphylococci, lowered incubation temperature (30.deg.) and inclusion of sodium chloride in media have been empirically recommended. However, in this study, we found that sodium chloride in Peptone-Yeast Extract-K$\_$2/HPO$\_$4/ (PYK) medium decreased methicillin minimum inhibitory concentrations. Divalent cations were shown to restore the expression of staphylococcal methicillin resistance. However, when it was determined by efficiency of plating, sodium chloride increased methicillin resistance expression on agar medium in which higher divalent cations were contained in the agar medium. The decrease of minimum inhibitory concentrations at 30.deg.C by sodium chloride occurred in Brain Heart Infusion but did not occur in other media investigated. Interestingly, both PYK and Brain Heart Infusion media had peptone, which contain cholic acids having detergent activities. Inclusion of sodium chloride in PYK caused a higher rate of autolysis. Penicillin binding protein 2a that has a low affinity to beta-lactam antibiotics, was highly inducible in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis strains. In this study, we found that autolysins that are activated by the sodium chloride decreased the minimum inhibitory concentration at 30.deg.C, and peptidoglycan is weakened due to the presence of methicillin. Peptone in the media may aggravate the fragile cells. However, stabilization due to the presence of divalent cations and production of penicilin binding protein 2a increase the survival of staphylococci.