Bacteriorhodopsin production by cell recycle culture of Halobacterium halobium

Abstract

When Halobacterium halobium R1 was cultured with cell recycle in a bioreactor equipped with an external hollow fiber membrane unit, the cell and bacteriorhodopsin concentrations reached in 10 days were 30.3 g cell dry weight/l and 282 mg/l, respectively. The productivity of bacteriorhodopsin (1.15 mg/l.h) was much higher than that (0.16 mg/l.h) obtained by typical batch fermentation.