The rapid growth in biotechnology in recent years has led to an upsurge in interest in microbial technology amongst many biochemists, molecular biologists, geneticists, virologists, endocrinologists, and clinicians. Their objectives may be very diverse, ranging from the isolation of a stable enzyme from a hyperthermophile to the expression of a human protein by a recombinant yeasts or bacterium. Advance in microbial physiology have made possible a rational approach to optimization of product yield based on analysis of cultures, growth kinetics, and biochemical pathways. The application of statistical optimization methods, widely used in other fields, also has much to offer microbiology and biotechnology. The choice of material for this book has been influenced by both the need for practical information to enable to the isolation, handling, and culture of organisms and the necessity to generate and analyse data enabling the development of a process. It therefore contains chapters covering the 'husbandry' of microbiology, the generation of data by chemical and physical analysis, and the interpretation of such data. Data interpretation is considered from two points of view. Kinetic analyses of growth and product formation have frequently illuminated the development of fermentation processes. More recently, the analysis of the flux of metabolites through intermediate biochemical pathways has shown up important factors in metabolic engineering through the application of molecular biology techniques in microbial physiology. Applied Microbial Culture: A Practical Approach is a useful resource and guide to the successful culture of microorganisms in pure form, optimizing the culture conditions, and the scaling-up process to enable more detailed study.

Edited by P. M. Rhodes, Bioscot Ltd, Edinburgh, and P. F. Stanbury, Department of Biosciences, University of Hertfordshire

"This book will prove very useful to anyone who is interested in reproducible optimised culture of micro-organisms in a laboratory." - ASLIB

1: Sources of microorganisms and their preservation
2: Isolation and growth of hyperthermophiles
3: Design and optimization of growth media
4: Working with laboratory fermenters
5: Measurement of biomass
6: Fermenter vent gas analysis
7: The analytical chemistry of microbial cultures
8: Analysis of microbial growth data
9: Metabolic flux analysis of fermentation processes
Appendix 1. Addresses of culture collections, microbial databases and national and international culture collection organizations
Appendix 2. Suppliers of specialist items