History of Industrial Microbiology

Questions and Answers

To convert sugar into alcohol

Wine making through fermentation

Bioprocessing

He discovered the role of microbiology in fermentation Signup and view all the answers

To grow cells on a large scale to create industrial products in bulky amounts Signup and view all the answers

Modern technology employs genetically engineered microorganisms, while traditional technology does not Signup and view all the answers

They have been carefully selected to make one or more specific products Signup and view all the answers

Genetic engineering Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Sumerians and Babylonians converted sugar into alcohol using yeasts to make beer around 7000 BC.
Egyptians discovered the ability of CO2 to puff bread around 4000 BC.
Wine was produced in Assyria through fermentation around 3500 BC.
Assyrians used vinegar to treat chronic middle ear disease around 400 BC.
Ancient Rome had over 250 bakeries producing leavened bread, and milk was fermented to lactic acid to make yogurt, kefyr, and koumiss using Kluyveromyces spp. around 100 BC.

Commonization of alcoholic distillation from fermented grain occurred in the 1400s.
Vinegar manufacturing began in Orleans, France in the 1400s.
Louis Pasteur understood the role of microbiology in fermentation, leading to the discovery of the first principal role of fermentation: microbes require a substrate to produce primary and secondary metabolites and end products in the mid-19th century.

Extensive application of bioprocess has expanded in the new millennium.
Bioprocessing involves the application of biological sciences in industrial processes.
Industrial fermentation involves the growth of cells on a large scale to create industrial products in bulk amounts.
Biotechnology applies scientific and engineering principles to the processing of material by biological agents to provide goods and services.

Genetic engineering involves inserting genes from one organism into a bacterial or yeast cell, causing the cell to produce new code for the new gene.
Industrial Microbiology has been given new dimensions due to discoveries made in the field of genetic engineering.

Traditional microbial technology involves large-scale manufacturing of products.
Modern microbial technology employs genetically engineered microorganisms with new genes inserted.

Industrial microorganisms are microbes carefully selected to make one or more specific products for their metabolic activities.
They must:
- Grow readily in large-scale manufacturing equipment.
- Grow on relatively cheap media.
- Be able to undergo genetic manipulations.
- Not be pathogenic or toxic.