metabolic competition
Metabolic Competition with Secondary Metabolites
Both aerobic and anaerobic lifestyles can be dominated by sugar metabolism. How is this partitioned between primary biochemistry (growth or storage product formation when amply supplied with fed carbohydrate) and the formation of products such as the #-glucosidase inhibitor acarbose? In one industrial process, detailed analysis identified the accumulation of the simple disaccharide trehalose as a major competitor.
As increasing numbers of novel and complex secondary metabolites are isolated from “exotic” microbial species, even a complete genome can be of little help in guiding bioprocess scale up. Examples from beòcarta’s portfolio include:
- Such rapid glucose metabolism that productivity was severely limited requiring other carbon sources to be considered.
- The accumulation of carboxylic acids such as oxalic acid that undermined pH regulation in fed-batch fermentations.
- The rapid turnover of cell wall polymers that utilized much of the fed carbon and nitrogen in an erythromycin process.