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Data Protection Declaration
Imprint
Ecological production of L-Methionin from ecologically produced renewable ressources
Project
Project code: 2803OE4032
Contract period: 01.03.2005
- 28.02.2008
Budget: 99,960 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
By a council regulation (EEC No. 2092/91) coming into effect August 2005 the usage of chemically synthesized methionine in organic farming is prohibited. An alternative is the biotechnical production of L-methionine on an ecological basis without the application of genetic engineering. The purpose of this project was to find a high-performance methionine producer which is able to utilize exclusively ecologically produced feedstocks. A selection strategy with methionine analoga described in several publications proved to be unsuitable and was exchanged by a newly developed microbiological test with a higher performance level. Furthermore most published works on biotechnological methionine production during the last 30 years proved to be false, novel methods for cell screening and amino acid analysis had to be created. The newly developed screening strategy consists of: 1. UV mutation of suitable strains, 2. a microbiological test for methionine (by a methionine auxotrophic strain) applicable on the scale of a microtiter plate and 3. a reliable and rapid amino acid analysis (gas chromatography after derivatization). All steps can be automated and are therefore applicable in robot systems. Unfortunately due to the high number of strains which had to be tested, no methionine overproducer could be found. The approximately 20000 mutants which were examined during this project did not nearly suffice to find a methionine overproducer. Here the use of a robot system will lead to success.To test the general suitability of the developed method in practice an existing methionine overproducer was studied. The results proved that such a strain would also be found in a screening using the new method. The final concentration of methionine under optimized conditions was nearly 400 mg/L.
Section overview
Subjects
- Animal nutrition
Framework programme
Federal Organic Farming Scheme and other forms of sustainable agriculture (BÖLN)
