Beauveria bassiana is an important entomopathogenic fungus widely commercialized in the world. Recent progress and achievements on conidia production have focused on a yield goal of 10(9) to 10(10) conidia per gram of dry substrate. Due to cost-competitive perspectives, these yields should be associated with better production rates or productivities. This study presents a review of relevant studies of B. bassiana conidia production on solid-state cultures and the parameters that should be taken into account to maintain constant quality in the product to be commercialized. Conditions for maximizing production and infectivity of B. bassiana conidia are also analysed.

Culture conditions for the generation of products using yeast have been optimized for fermentative processes in industry involving predominantly submerged medium (SmF). However, solid‐state fermentation (SSF) is now a realistic alternative system for the production of recombinant proteins and metabolites of interest in the market, with great potential in biofuels production, food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. One of the main advantages of SSF over SmF is the reduction of downstream expenses. Also, the use of artificial and very cheap solid supports for yeast SSF such as polyurethane foam or amberlite helps with study of the physiology of such systems. This mini‐review makes an overview of previous research and emphasizes the major physiological advantages of yeast SSF that can be used for new processes and product development and stresses the need for integrated approaches between adaptive evolution and high‐throughput genetic analysis. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry

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Antibiotic resistance (AR) represents a challenge for the treatment of infectious diseases. Traditionally, antibiotic resistance determinants have been retrieved from culturable bacteria which represent a minor fraction of the total microbial diversity found in natural environments such as soils. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the study of antibiotic resistance using two main culture-independent approaches: sequence-based metagenomics and functional metagenomics.

BACKGROUND Morphology and size of biofilms of Pichia pastoris under different culture conditions are key to understanding growth physiology in solid‐state fermentation (SSF) and differences relative to submerged fermentation (SmF). Two microscopic techniques were used to contrast these phenomena, comparing SSF on polyurethane foam and SmF, with three concentrations of glycerol as carbon source. Growth parameters such as specific growth rate, maintenance energy, and substrate consumption were also evaluated. RESULTS Higher specific growth rate and maximum growth were obtained in SSF at every glycerol concentration compared with that obtained in SmF. Maintenance energy was higher (33%) in SmF and was related to lower biomass production (66%) than that obtained in SSF. Besides, in SmF, as substrate concentration increased, oxygen availability decreased; such differences in oxygenation could explain differences in biofilm formation. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that P. pastoris produced a compact multilayered biofilm embedded in SSF when compared with SmF, where smaller aggregates were scarcely observed by confocal microscopy. CONCLUSION This is the first work where growth parameters of P. pastoris in SSF and SmF are related to biofilm observations, which will help to improve SSF systems for P. pastoris production and its industrial application. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry