• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.187-192
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• 1988

Production of 4-androstene-3,17-dione(AD) from cholesterol by microbial conversion was investigated. To facilitate the solubilization of cholesterol in the fermentation broth, ethanol was used as an organic solvent. Inhibition on cell growth by ethanol was observed to be negligible upto 2% (V/V) concentration. Microbial conversion was successfully carried out with high yield when the cholesterol was added at early logarithmic growth phase with pH control at 7.0. In order to improve the process productivity, bioconversion was conducted at various mode of cholesterol addition ; 0.1% (V/W) of cholesterol was found to be most appropriate for solubilization in ethanol and was added intermittently. When added three time(total 3 g/$\ell$), overall bioconversion yield reached upto 65% while single addition of same amount of cholesterol (3 g/$\ell$) yielded about 40% conversion.