Prediction of filamentous process performance attributes by CSL quality assessment using mid-infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics.

Every biopharmaceutical production process aims for control strategies to achieve process robustness in order to ensure consistent product quality. Process variability can origin from process parameters, the biological nature as well as from high lot-to-lot variability of raw materials. In filamentous processes raw materials with very complex matrices, such as corn steep liquor (CSL), are used, which are especially challenging to characterize.

A rapid method for the extraction and analysis of carotenoids and other hydrophobic substances suitable for systems biology studies with photosynthetic bacteria.

A simple, rapid, and inexpensive extraction method for carotenoids and other non-polar compounds present in phototrophic bacteria has been developed. The method, which has been extensively tested on the phototrophic purple non-sulphur bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum, is suitable for extracting large numbers of samples, which is common in systems biology studies, and yields material suitable for subsequent analysis using HPLC and mass spectroscopy. The procedure is particularly suitable for carotenoids and other terpenoids, including quinones, bacteriochlorophyll a and bacteriopheophytin a, and is also useful for the analysis of polar phospholipids.

In vivo and in vitro studies on the carotenoid cleavage oxygenases from Sphingopyxis alaskensis RB2256 and Plesiocystis pacifica SIR-1 revealed their substrate specificities and non-retinal-forming cleavage activities.

Carotenoid cleavage oxygenases are nonheme iron enzymes that specifically cleave carbon-carbon double bonds of carotenoids. Their apocarotenoid cleavage products serve as important signaling molecules that are involved in various biological processes. A database search revealed the presence of putative carotenoid cleavage oxygenase genes in the genomes of Sphingopyxis alaskensis RB2256 and Plesiocystis pacifica SIR-1.