Sequential optimization approach for enhanced production of glutamic acid from Corynebacterium glutamicum 2262 using date juice

To improve glutamic acid production from Corynebacterium glutamicum 2262 using date juice, a culture medium was screened and optimized using the statistical experimental designs of Plackett-Burman and response-surface methodology. In the first step, a two-level Plackett-Burman design was adopted to select the most important nutrients influencing the glutamic acid production, which showed that the date juice sugars, urea, peptone, and glycine betaine were the most significant ingredients (P < 0.05). Finally, response surface Box-Behnken design was employed to develop a mathematical model to identify the optimum concentrations of key components for higher glutamic acid production, which revealed the following: date juice (45 g/L), urea (16.9 g/L), peptone (15 g/L), and glycine betaine (12 g/L). The high correlation between the predicted and observed values indicated the validity of the model. Glutamic acid concentration increased significantly with optimized medium (33.2 g/L) when compared with non-optimized medium (12 g/L).