Effect of Different Agitation Systems and Protocols On the Growth of Nicotiana Tabacum Cells: Comparison of Growth Kinetics In Erlenmeyer Flasks, Conventional Stirred Tanks, and Eccentrically Agitated Tank Bioreactors

Erlenmeyer flasks and stirred tank bioreactors are the most commonly used bioreactors for the lab culture of plant cells. We compare the performance of these systems against and novel eccentrically agitated stirred tank bioreactor for the particular case of culture of Nicotiana tabacum cells. We measure the specific growth rate total cell density, cell viability and integrity/morphology over time of tobacco cells in 300 mL Erlenmeyer flasks, and 1L conventional and eccentrically stirred bioreactors. We observed that, under some agitation regimes, concentrically agitated systems inflicted damage to the tobacco cells, particularly at high cell densities. At these conditions, higher specific growth rates and cell densities were observed in Erlenmeyer flasks and eccentrically agitated bioreactors. Our results suggest eccentric bioreactors offer with a more benign and scalable growth environment for the culture of shear sensitive plant cells.