• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.269-278
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• 2003

Gibberellic acid (GA$_3$) is a commercially important plant growth hormone, which is gaining much more attention all over the world due to its effective use in agriculture and brewing industry. Industrially it is produced by submerged fermentation technique using Ascomycetous fungus Gibberella fujikuroi. Solid state and immobilized cell fermentation techniques had also been developed as an alternative to obtain higher yield of GA$_3$. This review summarizes the problems of GA$_3$ fermentation such as production of co-secondary metabolites along with GA$_3$, substrate inhibition and degradation of GA$_3$ to biologically inert compound gibberellenic acid, which limits the yield of GA$_3$ in the fermentation medium. These problems can be overcome by various bioprocessing strategies e.g. two - stage and fed batch cultivation processes. Further research on bioreactor operation strategies such as continuous and / or extractive fermentation with or without cell recycle / retention system need to be investigated for improvement in yield and productivity. Down stream processing for GA$_3$ isolation is also a challenge and procedures available for the same have been critically evaluated.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.126-133
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• 2021

In this study, we investigated the effect of solid culture medium on the production of cordycepin in Cordyceps militaris. The regression equation was expressed as follows: Y₁ = 755.3-58.6625X₁+4.79432E-14X₂-46.6625X₃-5.66269E-14X₁X₂-0.025X₁X₃+1.62475E-14X₂X₃-160.6625X₁²+0.0125X₂²-206.9625X₃², where, Y represents the value of cordycepin content (㎍/g), X₁ corresponds to the weight of M. alternatus in solid culture medium (g/bottle), X₂ to the water content of the solid culture medium (%), and X₃ to the culture period (day). The solid culture medium was optimized using the response surface methodology, and the optimal medium composition was as follows: the weight of M. alternatus in solid culture medium and water content were 16.2% and 100.7% (20.14 mL water/20 g solid culture medium), respectively, with a culture period of 39 days. Under these conditions, the cordycepin content of the fruiting bodies reached 150.0 ㎍/g (actual value). The supplementation of M. alternatus in solid culture for improved cordycepin content of C. militaris seems to be a promising alternative to wild and solid cultivation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.1550-1554
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• 2008

A hydrogen sulfide $(H_2S)$ detecting tube was developed for the quantitative determination of $H_2S$ produced by yeast during laboratory scale wine fermentations. The detecting tube consisted of a small transparent plastic tube packed with an $H_2S$-sensitive color-indicating medium. The packed medium changed color, with the color change progressing upward from the bottom of the tube, upon exposure to $H_2S$ produced by yeast during fermentation. A calibration study using a standard $H_2S$ gas showed that the length of the portion that darkened was directly related to the quantity of $H_2S$ (${\mu}g$) with a high correlation coefficient ($r^2$=0.9997). The reproducibility of the $H_2S$ detecting tubes was determined with five repetitive measurements using a standard $H_2S$ solution [5.6${\mu}g$/200 ml (28 ppb)], which resulted in a coefficient of variation of 3.6% at this level of $H_2S$. With the sulfide detecting tubes, the production of $H_2S$ was continuously monitored and quantified from laboratory scale wine fermentations with different yeast strains and with the addition of different levels of elemental sulfur to the grape juice. This sulfide detecting tube technology may allow winemakers to quantitatively measure $H_2S$ produced under different fermentation conditions, which will eventually lead winemakers to better understand the specific factors and conditions for the excessive production of $H_2S$ during wine fermentation in a large production scale.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.462-467
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• 2009

Cyclosporin A (CyA) produced by Tolypocladium inflatum is a promising drug owing to its immunosuppressive and antifungal activities. From an industrial point of view, the necessity to obtain a suitable and economic medium for higher production of CyA was the aim of this work. The present study evaluated the effect of different fermentation parameters in solid state fermentation, such as selection of solid substrate, hydrolysis of substrates, initial moisture content, supplementation of salts, additional carbon, and nitrogen sources, as well as the inoculum age and size, on production of CyA by Tolypocladium inflatum MTCC 557. The fermentation was carried out at $25{\pm}2^{\circ}C$ for 9 days. A combination of hydrolyzed wheat bran flour and coconut oil cake (1:1) at 70% initial moisture content supported a maximum production of $3,872{\pm}156\;mg$ CyA/kg substrate as compared with $792{\pm}33\;mg/kg$ substrate before optimization. Furthermore, supplementation of salts, glycerol (1% w/w), and ammonium sulfate (1% w/w) increased the production of CyA to $5,454{\pm}75\;mg/kg$ substrate. Inoculation of 5 g of solid substrate with 6 ml of 72-h-old seed culture resulted in a maximum production of $6,480{\pm}95\;mg$ CyA/kg substrate.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.155-164
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• 2014

Succinic acid, a representative biomass-derived platform chemical, is a major fermentation product of Actinobacillus succinogenes. It is well known that carbon dioxide is consumed during the succinate fermentation, but the biochemical mechanism behind this phenomenon is not yet understood well. In this study, it was found that the addition of carbonic anhydrase (CA)s into media significantly enhances the succinic acid production by A. succinogenes during the fermentation supplied with carbon dioxide. It is likely that the (bi) carbonate produced by the CA activity from gaseous carbon dioxide is favoured by A. succinogenes for consumption and utilization. Therefore, the $MgCO_3$ requirement could be significantly reduced without compromising the succinate productivity. Furthermore, because of too high price of the commercial carbonic anhydrase, it was undertaken to economically overproduce a cyanobacterial carbonic anhydrase by the use of a recombinant Pichia pastoris. An expression vector system was constructed with the carbonic anhydrase gene PCR-cloned from Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp., and introduced into P. pastoris for fermentation studies. About 95.9 g/L of succinic acid was produced in the production medium with 30 ppm of carbonic anhydrase, approximately 2 fold higher productivity compared to the parallel process with no supplementation of the enzyme. It is expected that this method can provide a valuable way of overcoming inefficiencies inherent in gas supply during $CO_2$-based bioprocesses like succinic acid fermentation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.572-578
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• 2013

Azotobacter vinelandii, a strict aerobic nitrogen-fixing bacterium, has been extensively studied with regard to the ability of $N_2$-fixation due to its high expression of nitrogenase and fast growth. Because nitrogenase can also reduce cyanide to ammonia and methane, cyanide degradation by A. vinelandii has been studied for the application in the bioremediation of cyanide-contaminated wastewater. Cyanide degradation by A. vinelandii in NFS (nitrogen-free sucrose) medium was examined in terms of cell growth and cyanide reduction, and the results were applied for cyanide-contaminated cassava mill wastewater. From the NFS medium study in the 300 ml flask, it was found that A. vinelandii in the early stationary growth phase could reduce cyanide more rapidly than the cells in the exponential growth phase, and 84.4% of cyanide was degraded in 66 h incubation upon addition of 3.0 mM of NaCN. The resting cells of A. vinelandii could also reduce cyanide concentration by 90.4% with 3.0 mM of NaCN in the large-scale (3 L) fermentation with the same incubation time. Finally, the optimized conditions were applied to the cassava mill wastewater bioremediation, and A. vinelandii was able to reduce the cyanide concentration by 69.7% after 66 h in the cassava mill wastewater containing 4.0 mM of NaCN in the 3 L fermenter. Related to cyanide degradation in the cassava mill wastewater, nitrogenase was the responsible enzyme, which was confirmed by methane production. These findings would be helpful to design a practical bioremediation system for the treatment of cyanide-contaminated wastewater.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.136-142
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• 1991

The selection of ethanol-tolerant strains was applied to enrichment culture of YPD broth medium containing various concentrations of ethanol. Isolates were identified to be Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the others as S. dairensis, S. exiguus, S. telluris, Saccharomycodes ludwigii, Schwanniomyces occidentalis var. occidentalis and Zygosaccharomyces florentinus. Among isolates S. cerevisiae YO-1 was screened as having the highest ethanol tolerance and produced 18% (v/v) ethanol after 4 days fermentation. The change of fatty-acyl residues represents that a progressive decrease in fatty-acyl unsaturation and a proportional increase in saturation in phospholipids of yeast cells during fermentation affected the yeast viability. Supplementation ethanol to the cultures led to an increase of unsaturated fatty-acyl residues, especially $C_{16}$ or $C_{18}$ residues, along with a decrease in the proportion of saturated residues in cellular phospholipids. Increasing the amount of soy flour led to an increase in the maximum number of viable yeast cells and ethanol production. It was possible in 4 days to reach 21% (v/v) ethanol by adding 4% soy flour as source of unsaturated fatty-acyl residues to the fermentation medium. Soy flour not only increased yeast population but also enhanced the physiological properties of yeast cells to be ethanol tolerant in the anaerobic culture.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.325-330
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• 1998

The methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris, is known to be a potential host to offer many advantages for production of recombinant proteins. Fermentation parameters were optimized to enhance the heterologous ${\beta}$-galactosidase productivity with P. pastoris. Optimum concentration of methanol, used as inducer, was observed to be 8 g/L and the extent of repression of AOX1 promoter by glycerol was lower than by glucose. The degradation of the gene product ${\beta}$-galactosidase by protease was inhibited as the pH increased from 5 to 8 and the yeast extract(1%) as nitrogen source increased expression level 4 times higher compared to yeast nitrogen base(1%) as nitrogen source increased expression level 4 times higher compared to yeast nitrogen base(1%). Induction method, in which methanol is just added to fermentation medium without centrifugation, was found to be as much effective as the one with centrifugation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.13-16
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• 2001

Maltose and soluble starch were used as secondary sources of carbon for glucoamylase production by Aspergillus awamori in solid state fermentation. During batch cultivation, maltose above 2.5%(w/w) repressed glucoamylase production, but, by adding either 2.5% (w/w) maltose or 1.25% (w/w) soluble starch to fed-batch cultivations, glucoamylase activity was increased by 15% and 170% over standard medium, respectively. The data showed that maltose is a weak inducer of glucoamylase production in solid stat fermentation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 1994

A yeast strain secreting glucoamylase was transformed with an expression vector (pMS12) containing the promoter of yeast alcohol dehydrogenase I gene ADC1, mouse salivary $\alpha$-amylase cDNA, and a segment of yeast $21\mu m$ plasmid. The transformed strain could produce ethanol from starch (4%, w/v) through a direct one-step process with the conversion efficiency of 93.2%, during 5 days of fermentation, while the original, untransformed strain exhibited a conversion efficiency of 38.1% under the same condition. When the regulatory site of the ADC1 promoter region was removed, the production of ethanol increased to 29~37% in the presence of exogenous 3%(v/v) ethanol in the fermentation medium.