Correction to: Industrial antifoam agents impair ethanol fermentation and induce stress responses in yeast cells.

The article "Industrial antifoam agents impair ethanol fermentation and induce stress responses in yeast cells" was originally published Online First without open access. After publication in volume 101, issue 22, page 8237-8248, the author decided to opt for Open Choice and to make the article an open access publication.

Industrial antifoam agents impair ethanol fermentation and induce stress responses in yeast cells.

The Brazilian sugarcane industry constitutes one of the biggest and most efficient ethanol production processes in the world. Brazilian ethanol production utilizes a unique process, which includes cell recycling, acid wash, and non-aseptic conditions. Process characteristics, such as extensive CO generation, poor quality of raw materials, and frequent contaminations, all lead to excessive foam formation during fermentations, which is treated with antifoam agents (AFA).

Scale-down of continuous protein producing Saccharomyces cerevisiae cultivations using a two-compartment system.

In the biotechnological industry, economic decisions in investment are typically based on laboratory-scale experiments. Scale-down as a tool is therefore of high industrial importance to transfer the processes into larger production scale without loss in performance. In this study, large-scale prolonged continuous cultivations with a heterologous protein producing Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain have been scaled-down to a two-compartment scale-down reactor system.

A high-throughput method for quantifying metabolically active yeast cells.

By redesigning the established methylene blue reduction test for bacteria and yeast, we present a cheap and efficient methodology for quantitative physiology of eukaryotic cells applicable for high-throughput systems. Validation of the method in fermenters and high-throughput systems proved equivalent, displaying reduction curves that interrelated directly with CFU counts. For growth rate estimation, the methylene blue reduction test (MBRT) proved superior, since the discriminatory nature of the method allowed for the quantification of metabolically active cells only, excluding dead cells.

Large-scale bioreactor production of the herbicide-degrading Aminobacter sp. strain MSH1.

The Aminobacter sp. strain MSH1 has potential for pesticide bioremediation because it degrades the herbicide metabolite 2,6-dichlorobenzamide (BAM). Production of the BAM-degrading bacterium using aerobic bioreactor fermentation was investigated.