ABSTRACT
RAPHAEL LAMED George S. Wise F aculty o f L ife Sciences, Tel A v iv U n ivers ity , Ramat A v iv , Israel
EDWARD A. BAYER Weizmann In s titu te o f Science, R ehovo t, Israel
I. INTRODUCTION
For many re a so n s , th e po ten tia l use of anaerobic therm ophilic b a c te r ia in th e even tua l in d u s tr ia l deg rad a tio n of cellulose h as se rv ed as an a ttra c tiv e and stim ulating incen tive fo r ap p lica tion -o rien ted re se a rc h in th e la s t decade . On th e one h a n d , anaerobic ferm en ta tio n s p rov ide a re la tiv e ly inexpensive and effic ien t means fo r b io conversion p ro c e sse s , in th a t problem atic aera tion is p rec lu d e d . In ad d itio n , re la tiv e ly h igh p ro d u c t levels a re p ro d u ced p e r b ac te ria l cell m ass. On th e o th e r h an d , therm ophilic microbial p ro cesses a re advan tageous in th a t expensive re fr ig e ra tio n p ro ced u res u sua lly r e q u ired for la rg e -sca le mesophilic ferm entations a re avo ided . More o v e r , therm ophilic p ro ced u res facilita te p ro d u c t re c o v e ry , po ten tia l contam ination b y pathogen ic m icroorganism s is u sua lly less problem a tic , and th e re su lta n t enzym es a re f req u en tly s tru c tu ra lly and fu n c tionally s ta b le . T hese asp ec ts have been sub jec t to ex ten siv e r e view in recen t y e a rs b y num erous a u th o rs ( 1 - 5 ) and th e in te re s te d re a d e r is d irec ted to th e se so u rces fo r additional inform ation.
