Whole Cell Entrapment Techniques

Methods Mol Biol. 2020:2100:385-394. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0215-7_25.

Abstract

Microbial whole cells are efficient, ecological, and low-cost catalysts that have been successfully applied in the pharmaceutical, environmental, and alimentary industries, among others.Microorganism immobilization is a good way to carry out the bioprocess under preparative conditions. The main advantages of this methodology lie in their high operational stability, easy upstream separation, and bioprocess scale-up feasibility.Cell entrapment is the most widely used technique for whole cell immobilization. This technique-in which the cells are included within a rigid network-is porous enough to allow the diffusion of substrates and products, protects the selected microorganism from the reaction medium, and has high immobilization efficiency (100% in most cases).

Keywords: Agar; Agarose; Alginate; Entrapment immobilization; Polyacrylamide; Post-immobilization; Reusability; Stability; Whole cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agar / chemistry
  • Alginates / chemistry
  • Biotechnology* / methods
  • Catalysis
  • Cells, Immobilized*
  • Chitosan / chemistry
  • Enzyme Stability
  • Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
  • Kinetics
  • Microbiological Techniques*
  • Sepharose / chemistry

Substances

  • Alginates
  • Agar
  • Sepharose
  • Chitosan