School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 70 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637457, Singapore.
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, Bhopal, India.
Sci Rep. 2018 Apr 10;8(1):5780. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23701-y.
Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a biocompatible material with versatile applications. However, its large-scale production is challenged by the limited biological knowledge of the bacteria. The advent of synthetic biology has lead the way to the development of BC producing microbes as a novel chassis. Hence, investigation on optimal growth conditions for BC production and understanding of the fundamental biological processes are imperative. In this study, we report a novel analytical platform that can be used for studying the biology and optimizing growth conditions of cellulose producing bacteria. The platform is based on surface growth pattern of the organism and allows us to confirm that cellulose fibrils produced by the bacteria play a pivotal role towards their chemotaxis. The platform efficiently determines the impacts of different growth conditions on cellulose production and is translatable to static culture conditions. The analytical platform provides a means for fundamental biological studies of bacteria chemotaxis as well as systematic approach towards rational design and development of scalable bioprocessing strategies for industrial production of bacterial cellulose.
细菌纤维素（BC）是一种具有多种应用的生物相容性材料。然而，由于对细菌的生物学知识有限，其大规模生产受到了挑战。合成生物学的出现为开发作为新型底盘的生产 BC 的微生物开辟了道路。因此，研究 BC 生产的最佳生长条件和理解基本的生物学过程是至关重要的。在这项研究中，我们报告了一种新的分析平台，可用于研究纤维素产生菌的生物学和优化生长条件。该平台基于生物体的表面生长模式，使我们能够确认细菌产生的纤维素原纤维在其趋化性中起着关键作用。该平台能够有效地确定不同生长条件对纤维素生产的影响，并且可以转化为静态培养条件。该分析平台为细菌趋化性的基础生物学研究提供了一种手段，以及对工业生产细菌纤维素的可扩展生物加工策略的合理设计和开发的系统方法。
