Pressure to kill or pressure to boost: a review on the various effects and applications of hydrostatic pressure in bacterial biotechnology

Abstract

Much knowledge has been gained for the last 30 years about the effects of pressure on bacteria, and various pressure-based technologies have been designed. The development of modern molecular biology techniques (e.g., DNA microarrays) as well as the technological advances realized in the manufacturing of robust sampling and high-pressure devices has allowed these advances. Not only the direct effects on cell components (membranes, proteins, and nucleic acids) have been unraveled, but also the cellular response to pressure has been investigated by means of transcriptome and proteome analyses. Initially, research was performed by marine biologists who studied the microorganisms living in the deep sea at pressures of 1,000 bar. In parallel, food technologists developed pressure-based methods for inactivating microorganisms without altering the food properties as much as with temperature treatment. The preservation of specific product properties is also the rationale for pressure-based methods for the disinfection of biomaterials and for vaccine production. Therefore, attention was first focused on the “killing” potential of high pressure. On the other hand, there has been a growing interest in using elevated pressures (up to ~10 bar) for enhancing the productivity of bioprocesses. In this case, no killing effect was sought, but pressure was applied to “boost” the process by enhancing the oxygen transfer to the cell culture. This paper gives an overview on the effects of pressures in the range of 1 bar to 10 kbar on bacteria and presents the major and most recent achievements realized in the development of pressure-based biotechnological applications.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in deep sea sediments: Microbe–pollutant interactions in a remote environment

“…HHP in DSSs is at approximately 10-50 MPa at 1000-5000 m respectively, with an increase of 10 MPa km −1 , and temperature is 2-3°C (Nagata et al, 2010). HHP is used to increase yield in biotechnological applications by enhancing oxygen rate in high-density bioreactors (Follonier et al, 2012). Nonetheless it has also been shown to reduce poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid degradation by deep sea fungi (Gonda et al, 2000).…”

“…As an acclimation reaction, bacteria alter their membrane composition and synthesize protective cold-shock proteins (Barria et al, 2013). Monomeric proteins are generally well preserved by HHP, while pressure can affect the supramolecular configuration and catalytic site of polymeric enzymes and, consequently, reduce substrate affinity (Eisenmenger and Reyes-De-Corcuera, 2009;Follonier et al, 2012). In dioxygenases (a polymeric enzyme), HHP can induce the release of iron from Fe-S clusters (Malone et al, 2006).…”

Potential of high isostatic pressure and pulsed electric fields to improve mass transport in pea tissue

“…Additionally, this pressure range may be applied aiming at the disintegration of plant materials. Possible mechanisms reported for the disintegration of microbial and plant cells are a pressure-induced denaturation of membrane proteins (Kato et al, 2002;Ulmer et al, 2002;Winter & Jeworrek, 2009), increased activity of degrading enzymes , cell wall stress, excessive mechanical strain of the membrane (Hartmann & Delgado, 2004), as well as altered membrane fluidity and permeability due to phase transition of the phospholipid bilayer (Follonier et al, 2012;Winter et al, 2007).…”

Verification of the Inactivation of Melanocytic Nevus in vitro Using a Newly Developed Portable High Hydrostatic Pressure Device

“…It is reported that HHP at pressures higher than 300 MPa causes irreversible protein denaturation and induces cell death through a necrotic-like pathway [Diehl et al, 2008;Rivalain et al, 2010]. As for the effect of HHP on enzymes, HHP at 100- inactivation [Diehl et al, 2008;Rivalain et al, 2010;Follonier et al, 2012]. However, for some proteases, proteolysis enhancement through HHP at pressures of up to 400 MPa was observed, depending on substrate changes and not on enzyme changes [Chicón et al, 2006].…”