T. Tosa, M. Senuma, Y. Nakagawa
Nov 1, 1992
Citations
0
Influential Citations
3
Citations
Journal
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Abstract
Since the beginning of the 1960s, we have been studying immobilized biocatalysts.' In 1969, we succeeded in the industrial application of the continuous optical resolution of DL-amino acids using immobilized aminoacylase.2 This is the first industrial application of immobilized enzymes in the world. After this, we developed industrial applications of immobilized microbial cells for the continuous production of L-aspartic acid, L-malic acid, L-alanine, and D-aspartic acid? On the basis of these, we expanded the techniques to immobilized biomaterials for bioseparation such as immobilized tannin4 and immobilized hi~tidine.~ On the other hand, since the latter half of the 1950s) by applying basic knowledge of molecular biology and genetic engineering, we have succeeded in constructing new microbial strains for amino acid fermentation. At present, we are producing L-amino acids such as L-isoleucine, L-proline, and L-threonine by fermentation.@ Further, we have techniques to produce L-histidine, L-arginine, etc?JO With these technologies, Tanabe Seiyaku commercialized an amino acid infusion in 1959 for the first time in the world. In order to improve the productivity of the bioreactor systems, we have investigated biosensors for bioprocess control and quality control. As a result, we developed both L-aspartic acid and urea sensors by coupling immobilized microbial cells to a sensing electrode. In this paper, we will present the industrial applications of both microbial sensors.