title: Online monitoring of biomass accumulation in recombinant yeast cultures.
abstract: Methods of biomass monitoring have increasingly been developed towards online, in situ techniques in order to advance process analysis and control. Off-line, ex situ methods, such as dry cell mass determination and direct cell counts, remain the reference for determining cell mass and number, respectively, but this type of analysis is time consuming. Absorbance measurement, which is used extensively as an off-line, ex situ, or online, in situ technique, is fast and straightforward, as the absorbance can be correlated to cell mass and number by a simple calibration. The downside is that absorbance measurements provide no estimation of viability and in situ applications can suffer from interference, such as aeration. Impedance spectroscopy is widely available and provides a quick measure of viable cell concentration, but does not give an estimation of total cell concentration and, hence, potential product. Sensitivity of impedance spectroscopy remains an issue at low cell concentration, and interference during in situ measurements is also a significant factor. In this chapter, a range of protocols is presented for online determination of biomass yields of recombinant yeast cultures.
authors.affiliation: Mitochondrial Biology Unit, The Medical Research Council, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Shane M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: Edmund R S
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Kunji
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D058266:Dielectric Spectroscopy; D015003:Yeasts / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*