Abstract
Bacteriorhodopsin in the purple membrane (PM) of halobacteria has recently been attracting much attention to be used as a component of molecular electron device and optical computers. In order to increase the productivity of bacteriorhodopsin in high cell density cultures of Halobacterium halobium R1, an internal membrane cell-retention bioreactor system was employed. As a result, the production of cell mass at OD660 of 12 and of bacteriorhodopsin at 125-130 mg/L were obtained using the internal membrane bioreactor system at a dilution rate of 0.066 hr-1. The productivity achieved by the internal membrane system (0.7 mg/L$.$hr) was 3.5-fold higher than that obtained by the corresponding batch cultivations (0.2 mg/L$.$hr).
