Biopolymers and cell. 2002; 18 (3): 232 - 236

Phenotype display of Escherichia coll BL21 (DE3) cell metabolism during growth in the media containing various types of carbon substrates

I. Yu. Slavchenko, E. V. Boreyko

The E. coli strain BL21 (DE3) is widely applied for the synthesis of recombinant products using the bacteriophage T7 polymerase-base expression systems. The level of target protein production in E. coli cells has been recently shown to depend on the type of carbon source in the growth media and the producer metabolic properties, es¬pecially by acetate production. The growth of the strains and overproduction of recombinant proteins are inhibited by acetate. The growth, acid-generation and gas-forming during cultivation of E. coli BL2I (DE3) cells in the media, containing 13 various types of carbon substrates, have been tested in this work. It was found that BL21 (DE3) cells cannot utilize sucrose and inositoL The least level of acid-generation is observed when glycerol is used as the carbon source.