Environmentally directed mutations and their impact on industrial biotransformation and fermentation processes

Microbial adaptation plays an important role in the selection of improved s trains for biotechnological processes and for the maintenance and stability of the selected production strains. Most of the knowledge about adaptation processes and environmentally directed mutations originates from environme ntal microbiology and from studies on biological evolution. The increasing information on the molecular mechanisms of adapted mutations and on the dev elopment of methods frequently used in environmental and evolutionary micro biology, such as the selection in semi-continuous cultures or chemostats, c an be used as input and tools for the improvement of industrial production organisms.