In general, morphological, physiological, and biochemical properties of fungal cells are drastically different among solid-state (SSC), liquid-surface (LSC), and submerged cultivation (SmC) systems. In addition to these traditional cultivation systems, a unique liquid-surface cultivation [liquid-surface immobilization (LSI)] system and interface cultivation systems [extractive liquid-surface immobilization (Ext-LSI) system; liquid–liquid interface bioreactor (L–L IBR)] bring some interesting fungal morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics. The unique properties of fungal cells located on a liquid-surface and an organic–aqueous interface are very important to application of fungi to the production of enzymes, metabolites, and bioconversion products. In this review, the unique and important characteristics of fungal cells immobilized in the LSI, L–L IBR, and Ext-LSI systems are explained in detail. Moreover, some application of the cultivation systems to fermentation, enzyme production, and microbial transformation are introduced.

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BIAcore analysis with a biopterin (BP)-bound sensor chip could be a powerful tool for the search of pterin-binding proteins. Although preparation of the sensor chip is crucial, a conventional amine coupling procedure is not applicable for the ligand such as BP that has no primary amino group. In this study, we describe the method to introduce the primary amino group onto BP molecule efficiently.

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