Vitis vinifera culture in a non-conventional bioreactor: the reciprocatingplate bioreactor

This paper is concerned with the potential use of a reciprocating plate bio reactor (RPB) for suspended plant cell cultures. The agitation mechanism of the RPB system, a plate stack, was first evaluated in pure water and in ps eudocells medium of 20, 40 and 60% of PCV. As the pseudocell concentration increases, the oxygen mass transfer coefficient, K(L)a, significantly decre ases. Correlations were established for each plate stack and concentration with good prediction of K(L)a. Three fermentations were performed with Vitis vinifera cells, two in the RP B system and one in shake flasks. Shake flask cultures showed better perfor mance whereas the first fermentation performed with the RPB showed the lowe st performance, The lower growth observed was attributed to the operating c onditions for aeration and the dissolved oxygen control strategy. CO2 strip ping in the initial portion of the fermentation led to lower biomass growth . The second fermentation, with more appropriate operating conditions, appe ars to follow the trend of shake flask cultures but was terminated after 5 days due to contamination. The RPB has the potential to be used for suspended plant cell cultures but significant research needs to be performed to find optimal operating condit ions but, more importantly, to make appropriate modifications to ensure the sterility of the bioreactor over long time periods.