Monitoring Yeast Cultures with the BioLector and Multisizer 4e instruments
Yeasts are unicellular fungi that share cellular structures and processes that are highly conserved amongst eukaryotes (e.g., membrane-bound organelles, a cytoskeleton, nuclear DNA, secretory proteins and transcription mechanisms). In addition, they are relatively easy and cheap to culture under laboratory conditions, display rapid growth, can be easily genetically manipulated and are able to achieve most of the post-translational modifications required for a biologically active recombinant protein. These characteristics make yeast cultures a popular choice for basic research (e.g., studying the function of specific genes or proteins) and protein production for various applications (e.g., chemicals, fuels, food and pharmaceuticals). This application note will demonstrate how the BioLector XT microbioreactor and the Multisizer 4e Coulter Counter can be used to optimize yeast cell culture conditions and characterize cell growth.
