Abstract
Alcaligenes latus has been known to produce poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) in a growth-associated manner even under nutrient-sufficient conditions. However, the PHB content obtained by fed-batch culture was always low, at ca. 50%, which makes the recovery process inefficient. In this study, the effect of applying nitrogen limitation on the production of PHB by A. latus was examined. In flask and batch cultures, the PHB synthesis rate could be increased considerably by applying nitrogen limitation. The PHB content could be increased to 87% by applying nitrogen limitation in batch culture, which was considerably higher than that typically obtainable (50%) under nitrogen-sufficient conditions. In fed-batch culture, cells were first cultured by the DO-stat feeding strategy without applying nitrogen limitation. Nitrogen limitation was applied at a cell concentration of 76 g (dry cell weight)/liter, and the sucrose concentration was maintained within 5 to 20 g/liter. After 8 h of nitrogen limitation, the cell concentration, PHB concentration, and PHB content reached 111.7 g (dry cell weight)/liter, 98.7 g/liter, and 88%, respectively, resulting in a productivity of 4.94 g of PHB/liter/h. The highest PHB productivity, 5.13 g/liter/h, was obtained after 16 h.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (190.9 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Anderson A. J., Dawes E. A. Occurrence, metabolism, metabolic role, and industrial uses of bacterial polyhydroxyalkanoates. Microbiol Rev. 1990 Dec;54(4):450–472. doi: 10.1128/mr.54.4.450-472.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lee S. Y., Chang H. N. Production of poly(3-hydroxybutyric acid) by recombinant Escherichia coli strains: genetic and fermentation studies. Can J Microbiol. 1995;41 (Suppl 1):207–215. doi: 10.1139/m95-189. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lee S. Y. E. coli moves into the plastic age. Nat Biotechnol. 1997 Jan;15(1):17–18. doi: 10.1038/nbt0197-17b. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lee S. Y., Yim K. S., Chang H. N., Chang Y. K. Construction of plasmids, estimation of plasmid stability, and use of stable plasmids for the production of poly(3-hydroxybutyric acid) by recombinant Escherichia coli. J Biotechnol. 1994 Feb 14;32(2):203–211. doi: 10.1016/0168-1656(94)90183-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Page W. J., Cornish A. Growth of Azotobacter vinelandii UWD in Fish Peptone Medium and Simplified Extraction of Poly-beta-Hydroxybutyrate. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1993 Dec;59(12):4236–4244. doi: 10.1128/aem.59.12.4236-4244.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Poirier Y., Nawrath C., Somerville C. Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates, a family of biodegradable plastics and elastomers, in bacteria and plants. Biotechnology (N Y) 1995 Feb;13(2):142–150. doi: 10.1038/nbt0295-142. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]