Use of flow cytometry in industrial microbiology for strain improvement programs

A flow cytometry (FCM) system was chosen to analyze and sort microbiological samples, e.g., bacteria, bacterial spores, yeasts, and fungal spores, without major changes in the commercially available state. The system was further improved by addition of a stepping motor-driven scanning table that accepts standard petri dishes or microtiter plates. The electronics of the sorting system were changed to enable the sorter to deliver only one particle at a time, working in a "handshake" mode with the scanning table. Appropriate parameters, depending on the biological material and including all fluorescent stains that do not impair growth and productivity of cells were chosen to sort distinct bioparticles under aseptic conditions and to clone colonies or cultures out of them. A mutagenized sample of spores entering the germination cycle can be followed and thus provide a means to pick only viable growing cells despite the killing effect of the mutagen. One example of a typical strain improvement is illustrated. From a spore suspension of Rhizopus arrhizus, a subpopulation of morphologically different spores comprising about 5-10% of the whole population was cloned. From approximately 8,000 clones, 10 were isolated that produced approximately five- to six-fold the amount of fungal lipase activity, compared to the original strain or to reisolated clones from the mean population of clones.