Mikrobiologisen selektion matemaattisista perusteista

For the effective utilization of microorganisms, either in biotechnology or agriculture, it is necessary to increase their original activity considerably. This can be performed by selection because even pure cultures of microorganisms are genetically heterogenous. The determination of the activity in a given strain is carried out in cultivation experiments. The error in the figures obtained decreases with repetition of the process. However, repetition of the determination raises the expenses. This can be compensated by reducing the number of strains included in the repeated experiments. This may involve a loss of profitable strains. The problem thus lies in choosing a selection procedure which minimizes labour and costs. In looking for the most suitable selection procedure mathematical methods may be used. However, in most cases it is difficult to get numerical results, even when assumptions are introduced for the sake of simplification. Computer simulation provides an alternative to solving some of the problems. For other problems it may be possible to find intuitive solutions which may not be the best ones, but are close to them