Emerging Technologies for Improvement of Microbial Strains Using Omic Sciences and Measuring Methods for Maximum Product Formation

Microorganisms are very beneficial to human kind. They produce primary and secondary metabolites that are useful to combat many harmful diseases caused by different microorganisms. These metabolites are used in foods, pharmaceuticals, textiles, cosmetics, and many other industries. The enzymes produced by microorganisms are used in waste water treatment, production of alcohol, and other fermented products. The antibiotics are harmful to the human body when used repeatedly as it causes antibiotic resistance. Around 700,000 deaths around the world are caused due to antibiotic resistance every year and this has become a major health concern. Therefore, it has become vital not only to diagnose but also to implement the corrective measures. For this purpose, rapid and accurate methods are needed. The most common bacterial diseases are diabetes, sepsis, and gonorrhea. Many biochemical and serological techniques are time-consuming and not equipped to differentiate similar species. Mass spectrometry (MS), laser desorption/ionization (LDI), matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI), or surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (SELDI) and electrospray ionization (ESI) are being used. However, with latest advances and discoveries, MALDI-TOF MS is combined with “omics” approach. This is helpful in detecting the genes in mRNAs (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics), lipids (lipidomics), and metabolites (metabolomics) in biological samples. This chapter deals on the emerging technologies for the improvement of microbial strains using omic sciences and other methods for the maximum product formation and combating pathogenic microorganisms. This can be done by classical or by molecular genetics methods. The techniques to measure the betterment have also been discussed in this chapter.