James C. Linden
Professor Emeritus

Phone: 491-6122
Fax: 491-1815
Email: James.Linden@colostate.edu
Office: B209A Microbiology Building

 

Degrees

• B.S., Colorado State University
• Ph.D., Iowa State University

Research Interests

Industrial Microbiology and Bioprocess Engineering

• We are currently involved in several projects related to industrial microbiology and bioprocess engineering. Bioconversion processes, which provide starting material for ethanol and butanol fermentations, are based on enzymatic digestion of cellulose from plant materials. Pretreatment of these materials followed by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation to ethanol and/or single cell protein is under study in collaborative research programs.
• Ancillary to the biomass conversion processes described above are developments in solid substrate fermentations to product cellulase enzymes using Trichoderma reesei, phytase enzymes using Aspergillus ficuum and amylase enzymes using Rhizopus oligosporus. Efforts to scale-up the fermentations in humidified and forced aeration reactors are underway.
• Understanding the elicitation of plant pathogen defense responses in potatoes and adzuki beans has been the focus of research that has been tested in greenhouse, field and MIR Space Station experiments. Induction of chitinase and beta-1,3-glucanase activities in the plant tissues is followed using molecular biological and enzymatic assay techniques.
• In another research program funded by the National Cancer Institute and National Science Foundation, plant cell culture production of pharmaceuticals, such the antimalarial, artemisinin, and the anticancer drug, taxol, are under study. The physiology of hormone receptor sites and signal transduction are of particular interest.

Selected Publications

• Gujarathi, N.P., Haney, B.J., Park, H.J., Wickramasinghe, S.R. and Linden, J.C. 2005. Hairy roots of Helianthus annuus: A Model System to Study Phytoremediation of Tetracycline and Oxytetracycline. Biotechnol. Prog., 21 (3), 775 -780.
• Gujarathi, N.P., Haney, B.J. and Linden, J.C. 2005. Phytoremediation Potential of Myriophyllum aquaticum and Pistia stratiotes to Modify Antibiotic Growth Promoters, Tetracycline and Oxytetracycline, in Aqueous Wastewater Systems. International Journal of Phytoremediation 7 (2) 99-112.
• Gujarathi, N.P. and Linden, J.C. 2005. Oxytetracycline Inactivation by PutativeReactive Oxygen Species Released to Nutrient Medium of Helianthus annuus Hairy Root Cultures. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 92 (4): 393-402.
• Linden, J.C. and Stoner, R.J. 2005. Proprietary Elicitor Affects Seed Germination and Delays Fruit Senescence. Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment 3: (3, 4) 184-189.
• Han, B.; Linden, J.C.; Gujarathi, N.P.; and Wickramasinghe, R. 2004. A population balance approach to modeling hairy root growth. Biotechnol. Progress 20 (2) 872-879.
• Bogar, B., Szakacs, G., Pandey, A., Abdulhameed, S., Linden, J.C., Tengerdy, R.P. 2003. Production of phytase by Mucor racemosus in solid substrate fermentation. Biotechnol. Progress 19 (2): 312-319.
• Park, S.W., Linden, J.C., Lawrence, C.B. and Vivanco, J.M. 2002. Characterization of a novel ethylene-inducible ribosome-inactivating protein with antifungal activity exuded from root cultures of Phytolacca americana. Plant Physiology, September 130 (1):164-178.
• Linden, J.C., Haigh, J.R., Mirjalili, N. and Phisalaphong, M. 2001. Advances in Biochemical Engineering / Biotechnology (T. Scheper, Series Ed.) Plant Cells (Z. Zhong, Volume Ed.), Gas Concentration Effects on Secondary Metabolite Production by Plant Cell Cultures. Vol.72:27-62.