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    Production of Antibiotics

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    dushyantrocky
    The production of antibiotics has been widespread since 1938 and involves identifying useful antibiotics, industrial production techniques, and strains used for production. To identify useful antibiotics, microorganisms are cultured and tested for inhibitory effects on other organisms, with the best candidates undergoing further testing. Industrial production involves fermenting source microorganisms in large containers to produce antibiotics as secondary metabolites, which are then extracted and purified. The microorganisms used are often genetically modified via mutation or gene amplification to maximize antibiotic yields.

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    Production of Antibiotics

    Uploaded by

    dushyantrocky
    2K views2 pages
    The production of antibiotics has been widespread since 1938 and involves identifying useful antibiotics, industrial production techniques, and strains used for production. To identify useful antibiotics, microorganisms are cultured and tested for inhibitory effects on other organisms, with the best candidates undergoing further testing. Industrial production involves fermenting source microorganisms in large containers to produce antibiotics as secondary metabolites, which are then extracted and purified. The microorganisms used are often genetically modified via mutation or gene amplification to maximize antibiotic yields.

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    The production of antibiotics has been widespread since 1938 and involves identifying useful antibiotics, industrial production techniques, and strains used for production. To identify useful antibiotics, microorganisms are cultured and tested for inhibitory effects on other organisms, with the best candidates undergoing further testing. Industrial production involves fermenting source microorganisms in large containers to produce antibiotics as secondary metabolites, which are then extracted and purified. The microorganisms used are often genetically modified via mutation or gene amplification to maximize antibiotic yields.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    2K views2 pages

    Production of Antibiotics

    Uploaded by

    dushyantrocky
    The production of antibiotics has been widespread since 1938 and involves identifying useful antibiotics, industrial production techniques, and strains used for production. To identify useful antibiotics, microorganisms are cultured and tested for inhibitory effects on other organisms, with the best candidates undergoing further testing. Industrial production involves fermenting source microorganisms in large containers to produce antibiotics as secondary metabolites, which are then extracted and purified. The microorganisms used are often genetically modified via mutation or gene amplification to maximize antibiotic yields.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Production of antibiotics

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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    The Production of Antibiotics has been widespread since the pioneering efforts of
    Florey and Chain in 1938. The importance of antibiotics to medicine has led to much
    research into discovering and producing them.

    Contents
    [hide]

    • 1 Identifying useful antibiotics


    • 2 Industrial production techniques
    • 3 Strains used for production

    • 4 References

    [edit] Identifying useful antibiotics

    An agar plate streaked with microorganisms

    Despite the wide variety of known antibiotics, less than 1% of antimicrobial agents have
    medical or commercial value. The most commonly known antibiotic, Penicillin has a
    highly selective toxicity and therapeutic index (as eukaryotic animal cells do not contain
    peptidoglycan, they are usually unaffected by it). This is not so for many antibiotics.
    Others simply lack advantage over the antibiotics already in use, or have no other
    practical applications.

    In order to identify the useful antibiotics, a process of screening is often employed. Using
    this method, isolates of a large number of microorganisms are cultured and then tested for
    production of diffusible products which inhibit the growth of test organisms. However,
    the majority of the resulting antibiotics are already known and must therefore be
    disregarded. The remainders must be tested for their selective toxicities and therapeutic
    activities, and the best candidates can be examined and possibly modified.

    A more modern version of this approach is a rational design program. This involves
    screening being directed towards finding new natural products that inhibit specific targets
    (e.g. a particular step of a metabolic pathway) on microorganisms, rather than tests to
    show general inhibition of a culture.

    [edit] Industrial production techniques


    Antibiotics are produced industrially by a process of fermentation, where the source
    microorganism is grown in large containers (100,000–150,000 liters or more) containing
    a liquid growth medium. Oxygen concentration, temperature, pH and nutrient levels must
    be optimal, and are closely monitored and adjusted if necessary. As antibiotics are
    secondary metabolites, the population size must be controlled very carefully to ensure
    that maximum yield is obtained before the cells die. Once the process is complete, the
    antibiotic must be extracted and purified to a crystalline product. This is simpler to
    achieve if the antibiotic is soluble in organic solvent. Otherwise it must first be removed
    by ion exchange, adsorption or chemical precipitation.

    [edit] Strains used for production


    Microorganisms used in fermentation are rarely identical to the wild type. This is because
    species are often genetically modified to yield the maximum amounts of antibiotics.
    Mutation is often used, and is encouraged by introducing mutagens such as ultraviolet
    radiation, x-rays or certain chemicals. Selection and further reproduction of the higher
    yielding strains over many generations can raise yields by 20-fold or more. Another
    technique used to increase yields is gene amplification, where copies of genes coding for
    proteins involved in the antibiotic production can be inserted back into a cell, via vectors
    such as plasmids. This process must be closely linked with retesting of antibiotic
    production and effectiveness.

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