9318142 Christoffersen The goal of this proposal is to purchase a modem computer- controlled fermentor that will be used to express a wide variety of proteins in microbial cells. The various projects that will utilize this facility reflect the breadth of interests present on the UCSB campus. The areas represented include proteins involved in neural growth factor receptor, DNA methylation, interferon regulation of cellular activities, DNA binding domains, plant hormone biosynthesis, plant secondary metabolism, the cellular cytoskeleton, egg sperm receptor and others. The common need to produce large amounts of protein for further biochemical or biophysical studies brings together these diverse investigators on this single proposal. The need for this instrumentation is due to advances in a variety of disciplines but most importantly is the development highly efficient expression vectors for E. coli or yeast cells. These simple, easy to growth organisms are extremely versatile in their ability or produce a variety of proteins under the right experimental conditions. Optimal expression for large scale experiments requires careful control of temperature, dissolved oxygen and agitation. The proposed fermentor would allow complete control of culture conditions and thus facilitate the recovery of milligram amounts of these various proteins.
