Oxygen transfer rates in shaken culture vessels from Fernbach flasks to microtiter plates

ABSTRACT By a sulfite oxidation method, oxygen transfer rates (OTRs) were determined in 11 types of culture vessels from 2.8‐L Fernbach (FB) flasks to 96‐, 48‐, and 24‐well square deepwell microtiter plates (MTPs). OTRs ranged from 140 mM/h in 250‐mL Ultrayield™ flasks shaken at 300 rpm with a 50 mm diameter shaker throw to 5 mM/h in unbaffled FBs shaken at 200 rpm with a 25 mm throw. Baffles in FBs increased OTRs 6–12‐fold under various shaking conditions, and up to five‐fold in 250‐mL flasks, depending on the type of baffles. Corner‐baffling was superior to bottom‐baffling in glass, 250‐mL flasks. In MTPs, OTRs increased with increasing well size and decreasing fill volume. At 50 mm throw and 300 rpm, 24‐well MTPs had OTRs comparable to corner‐baffled, 250‐mL flasks (∼100 mM/h). The OTRs in unbaffled flasks were relatively insensitive to shaking conditions, increasing less than two‐fold between the most modest and the most vigorous conditions. There was no consistency across vessels as to whether the alternate incubation conditions of 70 mm throw and 250 rpm produced higher OTRs than the 50 mm throw and 300 rpm regimen. No increase in OTR was seen in any MTP when the cover hole diameter was increased beyond 4.5 mm. OTRs decreased as viscosity increased, falling smoothly in unbaffled flasks and 24‐well MTPs, but 48‐well and 96‐well MTPs showed precipitous OTR drops as viscosity increased. Matching the OTRs of screening vessels to the oxygen uptake rates of microbial cultures can greatly reduce the number of false positive strains that are forwarded from microbial screens. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 1729–1735. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Oxygen transfer rates (OTRs) in shaken culture vessels from Fernbach flasks to 96‐well microtiter plates are presented. OTRs ranged from 140 mM/h in 250 mL Ultrayield™ flasks with robust shaking to 5 mM/h in unbaffled Fernbachs with moderate shaking. This work highlights the importance of matching the OTRs of screening vessels to the oxygen uptake rates of microbial cultures, to improve the efficiency of microbial screens by greatly reducing the number of false positive strains that are forwarded from the screens.