Comparison of the secondary metabolites in two scales of cephalosporin C (CPC) fermentation and two different post-treatment processes

Cephalosporin C (CPC) is the precursor of a class of antibiotics that were more effective than traditional penicillins. CPC production is performed mainly through fermentation by Acremonium chrysogenum, whose secondary metabolism was sensitive to the environmental changes. In the present work, secondary metabolites were measured by ion-pair reversed-phase liquid chromatography tandemed with hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and the disparity of them from two scales of CPC fermentations (pilot and industrial) and also two different post-treatment processes (oxalic acid and formaldehyde added and control) were investigated. When fermentation size was enlarged from pilot scale (50 l) to industrial scale (156,000 l), the remarkable disparities of concentrations and changing trends of the secondary metabolites in A. chrysogenum were observed, which indicated that the productivity of CPC biosynthesis was higher in the large scale of fermentation. Three environmental factors were measured, and the potential reasons that might cause the differences were analyzed. In the post-treatment process after industrial fermentation, the changes of these secondary metabolites in the tank where oxalic acid and formaldehyde were added were much less than the control tank where none was added. This indicated that the quality of the final product was more stable after the oxalic acid and formaldehyde were added in the post-treatment process. These findings provided new insight into industrial CPC production.     

Chromosomal polymorphism of Acremonium chrysogenum strains producing cephalosporin C

Using pulse electrophoresis in controlled homogenous electric field we performed molecular karyotyping of cephalosporin C-producing industrial and laboratory strains of Acremonium chrysogenum. Differences in size of several chromosomes of high-producing strain CB26/8 compared to the wild-type strain ATCC 11550 were revealed. It was shown that chromosomal polymorphism in the high-producing strain was not associated with alteration of localization and copy number of cephalosporin C (CPC) biosynthesis and transport genes. A cluster of ??early?? CPC biosynthesis genes is located on chromosome VI (4.4 Mb); a cluster of the ??late genes??, on chromosome II (2.3 Mb). Both clusters are presented as a single copy per A. chrysogenum genome in the wild-type and in CB26/8 high-producing strains. Based on comparative analysis of laboratory and industrial CPC producers, a karyotype scheme for A. chrysogenum strains of various origins was designed.     

Improvement of Cephalosporin C Production by Recombinant DNA Integration in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Acremonium chrysogenum</Emphasis>

Cephalosporins are widely used as anti-infectious β-lactam antibiotics in clinic. For the purpose of increasing the yield of cephalosporin C (CPC) fermentation, especially in an industrial strain, A. chrysogenum genes cefEF and cefG, which encode the ultimate and penultimate steps in CPC biosynthesis, cefT, which encodes a CPC efflux pump, and vgb, which encodes a bacterial hemoglobin gene were transformed in various combinations into an industrial strain of A. chrysogenum. Both PCR and Southern blotting indicated that the introduced genes were integrated into the chromosome of A. chrysogenum. Carbon monoxide difference spectrum absorbance assay was performed and the result showed that Vitreoscilla hemoglobin was successfully expressed in A. chrysogenum and had biological activity. HPLC analysis of fermentation broth of recombinant A. chrysogenum showed that most transformants had a higher CPC production level than the parental strain. Multiple transformants containing an additional copy of cefG showed a significant increase in CPC production. However, cefT showed little effect on CPC production in this high producer. The highest improvement of CPC titer was observed in the mutant with an extra copy of cefG + cefEF + vgb whose CPC production was increased by 116.3%. This was the first report that three or more genes were introduced simultaneously into A. chrysogenum. Our results also demonstrated that the combination of these genes had a synergy effect in a CPC high producer.     

Performance improvement of cephalosporin C fermentation by Acremonium chrysogenum with DO-Stat based strategy of co-feeding soybean oil and glucose

Cephalosporin C (CPC) fermentation by Acremonium chrysogenum featured with two major problems: (1) high raw materials cost (low CPC yield from soybean oil) and (2) low oxygen transfer rate between gaseous/aqueous phases leading to low CPC productivity and quality instability of CPC fermentation product due to the accumulation of deacetoxycephalosporin C (DAOC). To solve the problems, in this study, we proposed a novel DO-Stat based co-substrates feeding strategy by simultaneously supplementing soybean oil and glucose, and testified the effectiveness of the strategy in a 7 L bioreactor. The CPC fermentation performance were significantly improved when co-feeding soybean oil and glucose at a weight ratio of 1:0.7, as compared with those when feeding pure soybean oil: (1) final CPC concentration and yield reached higher levels of 37 g/L and 23.5%, the increments were 46% and 82%, respectively; (2) oxygen transfer rate was largely improved, oil consumption rate and CPC productivity were enhanced by 31% and 136%, respectively; and (3) DO could be controlled at adequately high levels so that DAOC accumulation could be minimized and the quality of CPC fermentation product be ensured. The proposed strategy showed application potential in improving the economics of industrial CPC productions.