Effect of inclusion body production on culture turbidity and cell dry weight in growing bacterial cultures.

An approach to the optimization of product yield in an inducible inclusion body-producing system is presented. Following induction by indoleacrylic acid (IAA) of a trpLE-HIVgp41 fusion protein, we found a large increase in culture turbidity and single-cell dry weight. After an initial transition phase, new and constant values for specific growth rate, single-cell light turbidity, and single cell dry weight were achieved, allowing for the determination of optimal conditions for product formation.