Recombinant protein synthesis and plasmid instability in continuous cultures of Escherichia coli JM103 harboring a high copy number plasmid

Abstract Escherichia coli JM103[pUC8] was employed as a model to investigate the behavior of a recombinant microbial system harboring a plasmid at high copy numbers. Experiments with batch and continuous cultures of recombinant and plasmid‐free cells were conducted in a well‐controlled bio‐reactor. In batch experiments, plasmid copy number varied typically from an average of 500 during the exponential growth phase to as high as 1250 during the stationary phase. While the segregational plasmid instability was negligible in batch experiments, severe segregational instability occurred in continuous experiments conducted over a range of dilution rates, resulting in complete loss of plasmid‐bearing cells from the continuous cultures within few residence times after transition to continuous operation. The profound differences in the specific growth rates and mass yields of the plasmid‐free and plasmid‐bearing cells resulting from the extra metabolic burden on the plasmid‐bearing cells mainly due to excessive plasmid DNA content was the major cause for the plasmid instability. Plasmid multirnerization was detected in batch and continuous cultures and was found to have significant influence on the effective copy number and was partially responsible for the severe segregational instability in continuous cultures. A quasi‐steady state representative of plasmid‐bearing cells was established in the initial portion of each continuous culture experiment. Due to the profound growth rate differential between the two types of cells, transients of considerable duration were observed in each continuous culture experiment (initiated with a pure culture of plasmid bearing cells) following the slow accumulation of plasmid‐free cells near the end of the quasi‐steady state. Significant variations in various culture parameters (including a rapid decline in the plasmid‐bearing fraction of the total cell population) occurred during this period, leading ultimately to a steady state for a culture dominated entirely by plasmid‐free cells. In continuous cultures, plasmid copy number during the quasi‐steady states increased with decreasing dilution rate from 50 (at 0.409 h −1 ) to 941 (at 0.233 h −1 ). Production of the plasmid‐encoded protein (β‐lactamase) in these experiments was maximized at an intermediate dilution rate, corresponding to an optimum copy number of about 450. A similar optimum copy number was observed in batch cultures. Significant excretion of β‐lactamase was observed at both low and high dilution rates.