The growth of cells of great practical interest, such as, the filamentous cells of bacterium Streptomyces clavuligerus, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the insect Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cell, cultivated in shaking flasks with complex media at appropriate temperatures and pHs, was quantified by the new wavelet transform technique. This image analysis tool was implemented using Matlab 5.2 software to process digital images acquired of samples taken of these three types of cells throughoot their cultivation. The values of the average wavelet coefficients (AWCs) of simplified images were compared with experimental measurements of cell concentration and with computer-based densitometric measurements. AWCs were shown to be directly proportional to measurements of cell concentration and to densitometric measurements, making evident the great potential of the wavelet transform technique to quantitatively estimate the growth of several types of cells.

Partial hydrolysis of whey proteins by enzymes immobilized on an inert support can either change or evidence functional properties of the produced peptides, thereby increasing their applications. The hydrolysis of sweet cheese whey proteins by alcalase, which is multipoint-immobilized on agarose gel, is studied here. A Michaelis-Menten model that takes into account competitive inhibition by the product was fitted to experimental data. The influence of pH on the kinetic parameters in the range 6.0 to 11.0 was assessed, at 50ºC. Initial reaction-rate assays in a pHstat at different concentrations of substrate were used to estimate kinetic and Michaelis-Menten parameters, k and K M. Experimental data from long-term batch assays were used to quantify the inhibition parameter, K I. The fitting of the model to the experimental data was accurate in the entire pH range.