Bioengineering (Apr 2022)

Quantitative Analysis of Core Lipid Production in <i>Methanothermobacter marburgensis</i> at Different Scales

  • Lydia M. F. Baumann,
  • Ruth-Sophie Taubner,
  • Kinga Oláh,
  • Ann-Cathrin Rohrweber,
  • Bernhard Schuster,
  • Daniel Birgel,
  • Simon K.-M. R. Rittmann

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9040169
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 4
p. 169

Abstract

Read online

Archaeal lipids have a high biotechnological potential, caused by their high resistance to oxidative stress, extreme pH values and temperatures, as well as their ability to withstand phospholipases. Further, methanogens, a specific group of archaea, are already well-established in the field of biotechnology because of their ability to use carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen or organic substrates. In this study, we show the potential of the model organism Methanothermobacter marburgensis to act both as a carbon dioxide based biological methane producer and as a potential supplier of archaeal lipids. Different cultivation settings were tested to gain an insight into the optimal conditions to produce specific core lipids. The study shows that up-scaling at a constant particle number (n/n = const.) seems to be a promising approach. Further optimizations regarding the length and number of the incubation periods and the ratio of the interaction area to the total liquid volume are necessary for scaling these settings for industrial purposes.

Keywords