Title: Unit 12 Learning Module
Course: SAT 170 Introductory Biotechnology > Section: SAT 170 Introductory Biotechnology

Unit 12 Learning Module

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Biotechnology in the Industrial Field-White Biotechnology

Industrial biotechnology, also known as “white biotechnology”, utilizes living cells or their components to generate industrial processes and products. Much of this field overlaps with medical and agricultural biotechnology, which we have already discussed, as well as marine and environmental biotechnology which we will examine in subsequent units. An industrial manufacturing plant is a place where goods are made. This production often requires the processing, modification and/or demolition of materials. Many of the organic (carbon based) materials that we currently use for industrial purposes are derived from petroleum. Since living organisms can produce most of the organic materials that we need, such bioproduction may eventually get rid of the need for petrochemicals. Thus, by harnessing and in some cases, manipulating, the properties of living things, we will be able to improve industrial practices.

Some of the applications of industrial biotechnology have already been discussed in previous units including biomining, bioremediation, and biopharming (the production of biopharmaceuticals). Here we will discuss some of the features of industrial biotechnology that we have not yet addressed.

Bioreagents are substances that are captured from living cells and used as chemical reagents.

This figure provides an overall schematic of a bioreactor which has to take into account the conditions needed for the living things that will be housed within these chambers.

Many of these bioreagents are enzymes. Recall from unit 5, that enzymes are protein catalysts which function to speed up chemical reactions. The identification of enzymes that are useful for industrial purposes remains to be one of the major obstacles to advancing the use of bioreagents. To discern an enzyme of interest from the sometimes thousands of other chemicals in a cell, researchers must select and isolate enzymes at random until they find the one with the function that they are interested in. Researchers can isolate enzymes from an organism which exhibits the desired enzymatic activity. The amino acid sequence and structures of these enzymes can be compared with enzymes that have known function. Recall from unit 4, that proteins are synthesized from mRNA molecules. This means that you can also use and compare mRNA sequences within a cell in an attempt to identify the presence of a particular protein. Alternatively, you can use the methods of creating genetically modified organisms to identify an enzyme of interest. This involves using inactive cells which do not exhibit the desired activity. The genes from an organism which does exhibit the activity can then be introduced into the inactive cells one at a time. The gene that is able to transform the inactive cells with the desired activity can then be identified. As you might imagine, these processes are incredibly tedious and time consuming which is thought to be one of the reasons that industrial biotechnology has not advanced as quickly as predicted. However, this process has been greatly aided by the field of proteomics which investigates the structures and functions of proteins (see unit 5 for a complete description of proteomics).

Bioreagents can be isolated to be used in a reaction chamber or they can be used within the cell itself, creating what is referred to as a cell factory. There are a few things to consider when determining whether to use reactions vessels or cells for the production of certain materials. The first is whether or not a single cell has all of the chemicals needed to complete a particular process. If not, a process known as pathway engineering can be employed to create genetically modified organisms which possess all of the genes necessary to generate the enzymes needed for a particular process. Thus, these organisms have been modified not by one or two genes, but by a selection of genes that will create a new metabolic pathway for that organism. Another factor to consider is the conditions under which the reaction will be carried out. If the conditions are not conducive to cell survival then a hardier cell must be selected or the reaction should be carried out in a reaction vessel. Bioreactors are used to house cultures of cells or collections of bioreagents so that the biosynthetic operations can occur with limited interference and contamination from the environment. Furthermore, such bioreactors can be operated on batch mode or in a continuous capacity. Batch mode is often thought of as a one-time operation where the products are collected once the process is complete. Continuous processing, on the other hand, works constantly with the product being harvested at certain points in the operation.  Continuous processing is often desirable as it can generate large amounts of product in the least amount of time.  Since continuous systems are set-up in a serial configuration, the process must be closely monitored to avoid delays in the process and optimize the production. Although continuous processing is often the desired form of processing, it is not always possible with bioreactors given the limitations of cells and their chemicals.
Here is an example of a bioreactor which contains cultures of algae that will be used as a source of biomass.