An Overview of Biological Basics - Bioprocess Engineering: Kinetics, Biosystems, Sustainability and Reactor Design - page 84

2.16. Contrast the advantages and disadvantages of chemically defined and complex media.
2.17. You are asked to develop a medium for production of an antibiotic. The antibiotic is to
be made in large amounts (ten 100,000 L fermenters) and is relatively inexpensive. The
host cell is a soil isolate of a fungal species, and the nutritional requirements for rapid
growth are uncertain. Will you try to develop a defined or complex medium? Why?
2.18. You wish to produce a high-value protein using recombinant DNA technology. Would
you try to develop a chemical-defined medium or a complex medium? Why?
2.19. Explain what semiconservative replication means.
2.20. Give characteristic dimensions for each of these cells: E. coli, yeast (S. cerevisiae), liver
cell (hepatocyte), plant cell.
2.21. What are the differences in the cell envelope structure between gram-negative and
gram-positive bacteria? These differences become important if you wish to genetically
engineer bacteria to excrete proteins into the extracellular fluid.
2.22. True or False:
a. An organism that can grow using oxygen as an electron acceptor and can also grow
and metabolize in the absence of oxygen is called facultative.
b. Yeasts are prokaryotes.
c. A bacteriophage is a virus that infects bacteria.
d. When you supplement growth media with amino acids, you should use the D -form.
2.23. Summarize the argument that all chemical energy sources are derived from solar
energy. What is a reasonable definition of renewable and nonrenewable energy
sources?
2.24. What is the difference between cellulose and hemicelluloses? What are the similarities
and differences between starch, cellulose and fructan?