DEVELOPMENT OF BACILLUS-THURINGIENSIS FERMENTATION AND PROCESS-CONTROL FROM A PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is the most widely used biopesticide produ cer in the biological control market. It is very critical for the Bt p esticide industry to be able to achieve a high yield in the Bt ferment ation process in order to reduce its cost and compete with chemical pe sticides in the market. We review the overall development of Bt fermen tation process research and provide our point of view for the future r esearch opportunities and potential improvements. This minireview cove rs the areas of fermentation physiology, growth dynamics and high-yiel d process control. It is pointed out that many studies aimed to improv e spore count and process research focusing on toxin protein yield is lacking. In addition, significant development opportunities reside in the process development for the genetically engineered at strains expr essing multiple toxin proteins.