The Roots—A Short History of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology
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Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2013) 97:3747–3762 DOI 10.1007/s00253-013-4768-2 MINI-REVIEW The roots—a short history of industrial microbiology and biotechnology Klaus Buchholz & John Collins Received: 20 December 2012 /Revised: 8 February 2013 /Accepted: 9 February 2013 /Published online: 17 March 2013 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract Early biotechnology (BT) had its roots in fasci- mainly secondary metabolites, e.g. steroids obtained by nating discoveries, such as yeast as living matter being biotransformation. By the mid-twentieth century, biotech- responsible for the fermentation of beer and wine. Serious nology was becoming an accepted specialty with courses controversies arose between vitalists and chemists, resulting being established in the life sciences departments of several in the reversal of theories and paradigms, but prompting universities. Starting in the 1970s and 1980s, BT gained the continuing research and progress. Pasteur’s work led to the attention of governmental agencies in Germany, the UK, establishment of the science of microbiology by developing Japan, the USA, and others as a field of innovative potential pure monoculture in sterile medium, and together with the and economic growth, leading to expansion of the field. work of Robert Koch to the recognition that a single path- Basic research in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology dra- ogenic organism is the causative agent for a particular matically widened the field of life sciences and at the same disease. Pasteur also achieved innovations for industrial time unified them considerably by the study of genes and processes of high economic relevance, including beer, wine their relatedness throughout the evolutionary process. The and alcohol. Several decades later Buchner, disproved the scope of accessible products and services expanded signif- hypothesis that processes in living cells required a meta- icantly. Economic input accelerated research and develop- physical ‘vis vitalis’ in addition to pure chemical laws. ment, by encouraging and financing the development of Enzymes were shown to be the chemical basis of biocon- new methods, tools, machines and the foundation of new versions. Studies on the formation of products in microbial companies. The discipline of ‘New Biotechnology’ became fermentations, resulted in the manufacture of citric acid, and one of the lead sciences. Although biotechnology has histor- chemical components required for explosives particularly in ical roots, it continues to influence diverse industrial fields of war time, acetone and butanol, and further products through activity, including food, feed and other commodities, for fermentation. The requirements for penicillin during the example polymer manufacture, biofuels and energy produc- Second World War lead to the industrial manufacture of tion, providing services such as environmental protection, and penicillin, and to the era of antibiotics with further antibi- the development and production of many of the most effective otics, like streptomycin, becoming available. This was drugs. The understanding of biology down to the molecular followed by a new class of high value-added products, level opens the way to create novel products and efficient environmentally acceptable methods for their production. K. Buchholz (*) Institute for Chemical Engineering, Keywords Biotechnology . History . Fermentation theories . Technical University of Braunschweig, Hans-Sommer Str. 10, Industrial microbiology . Genetic techniques . Biotech 38106 Braunschweig, Germany companies e-mail: [email protected] J. Collins Life Science Faculty, c/o Helmholtz Centre Introduction for InfectionResearch - HZI, AG Directed Evolution, Technical University of Braunschweig, Inhoffenstr. 7, 38124 Braunschweig, Germany Fermentation has been of great practical and economic e-mail: [email protected] relevance as a handicraft for thousands of years, notably 3748 Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2013) 97:3747–3762 the production of beer, wine and bread. The written first with each other, others in opposition to each other, so that the document was by the Sumerians 6,000 years ago and de- first attract, the latter reject each other’. Kützing (1837, pp. 396, scribes the technique of brewing (Bud 1993). Beer and wine 397) believed that ‘… organic entities (living organisms) can manufacture was economically so important in ancient form themselves by spontaneous generation …’, and he as- Mesopotamia and Egypt that it became a major source of sumed two forces, the ‘organizing living force, and the chem- tax revenue. Soya fermentation was established in China ical affinity, fighting each other …’, and Quevenne (1838, around 3500 BP. Due to its great practical relevance alco- p.469) used the term ‘secret of life’. In contrast to the vitalist holic fermentation was of major technical as well as scien- school, Liebig, the head of the chemical school, vigorously tific interest. Controversies over basic concepts, e.g. argued against the concept of living bodies being active in vitalism versus materialism in chemistry and biology, fermentation processes and advanced his erroneous theory of resulted in the establishment, and reversal of theories and ferments that supposed a body undergoing decomposition paradigms, but finally lead to scientific rationalisation of which transfers its disturbed equilibrium onto other metastable causality, and continuous technical progress, resulting in substances (Liebig 1839). In his book on chemical technology, the emergence of BT. Knapp (1847, p. 271) came to the conclusion that ‘no one of the … hypotheses is up to now accepted as unequivocal truth’. The importance of fermentation processes corresponds The early period till 1850—fermentation mysteries with the large sections that were devoted to the topic in the books on technology and chemical engineering of the time Leeuwenhook, about 1680, had observed, with the aid of his (Otto 1838; Poppe 1842; Knapp 1847; Wagner 1857;Payen, microscope, tiny ‘animalcules’ in droplets of liquids, which 1874). Knapp (1847, p.367) reported that brewing was he, however, did not associate with fermentation. Then, in performed in Germany at the level of handicraft, estimated the second half of the eighteenth century Spallanzani under- at a volume of about 22.7 million hectolitres (2,27 million m3) took microscopic investigations of many specimens, includ- in 1840, whereas in the UK it was carried out on an industrial ingspermandmicrobialgrowth.Bytheendofthe scale in large factories with fermenters of up to 240,000 L. eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, re- Particularly beer, as well as wine, acetic and lactic acid pro- spectively, Lavoisier and Gay-Lussac had elaborated quan- duction contributed significantly to the national economies. A titative correlations for alcoholic fermentation, without ‘fast acetic acid manufacture’ (‘Schnellessigfabrikation’)was giving explanations for the process underlying it. From the developed by Schützenbach in 1823. It worked, remarkably, mid-1830s evidence began to accumulate which pointed to with active acetic acid bacteria (of course not recognized at the biological nature of fermentation. Based on well- that time) immobilized on beechwood chips (Ost 1900). designed experiments, Schwann (1837) and Cagniard- Unformed, or unorganized ferments, obviously non-living Latour (1838) independently showed that yeast is a micro- matter, different from yeast, enzymes in today’sterms,were organism, an ‘organized’ body, and that alcoholic fermenta- recognized and further characterized. Notably diastase, of tion is linked to living yeast. Both observed the yeast of beer which small amounts were able to liquify large amounts of being little globular bodies able to reproduce themselves, starch was studied in detail (Payen and Persoz 1833). Further, excluding spontaneous generation, and presenting a theory enzymes described were, e.g. ‘emulsin’ and pepsin (Schwann on fermentation corresponding in essential parts to that 1836; see also Buchholz and Poulson 2000). The first indus- which Pasteur put forward about two decades later (for an trial processes that used enzymes (diastase) to produce dex- extended overview, see Buchholz and Collins 2010, part I). trins were established from the 1830s onwards in France, Many other scientists, including Kützing, Turpin and based on Payen’swork(Knapp1847). Quevenne, contributed significant advances in understanding The most relevant events of this period are summarized fermentation, confirming that living organisms were involved in Table 1. in fermentation processes other than that leading to alcohol, e.g., in acetic acid fermentation. However, their arguments were often confused by mystic concepts, in particular that fermenta- The period from 1850 to 1890—the emergence tion emerges from spontaneous generation, and is a conse- of microbiology as a science quence of a ‘secret living force’ (in contrast to chemical forces), a that view promoted, e.g. Gay-Lussac (Buchholz and It was only with Pasteur’s work that the scientific debate on the Collins 2010, chapter 2). The mysterious concepts are obvious nature of fermentation was settled in favor of the role of living from a textbook by Poppe (1842, p. 229): ‘Fermentation is seen microorganisms, starting from hypotheses based on empirical as a—at a time and under circumstances spontaneous - occur- results provided by sophisticated experiments and ingenious ring mighty movement in a liquid of different compounds …, theoretical