Ethanol production from xylose by Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus in batch and continuous culture

The fermentation of xylose by Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus ATCC 31938 was studied in pH-controlled batch and continuous cultures. In batch culture, a dependency of growth rate, product yield, and product distribution upon xylose concentration was observed. With 27 mM xylose media, an ethanol yield of 1.3 mol ethanol/mol xylose (78% of maximum theoretical yield) was typically obtained. With the same media, xylose-limited growth in continuous culture could be achieved with a volumetric productivity of 0.50 g ethanol/liter h and a yield of 0.42 g ethanol/g xylose (1.37 mol ethanol/mol xylose). With extended operation of the chemostat, variation in xylose uptake and a decline in ethanol yield was seen. Instability with respect to fermentation performance was attributed to a selection for mutant populations with different metabolic characteristics. Ethanol production in these T. ethanolicus systems was compared with xylose-to-ethanol conversions of other organisms. Relative to the other systems, T. ethanolicus offers the advantages of a high ethanol yield at low xylose concentrations in batch culture and of a rapid growth rate. Its disadvantages include a lower ethanol yield at higher xylose concentrations in batch culture and an instability of fermentation characteristics in continuous culture.     

Production of the macrolide antibiotic tylosin in batch and chemostat cultures

The production of tylosin and related compounds by Streptomyces fradiae NRRL 2702 was studied in batch and chemostat cultures using a soluble synthetic medium. In batch culture, a trophophase–idiophase kinetic pattern was observed with tylosin, macrocin, and relomycin accumulating in the idiophase. When the organism was grown in chemostat culture, the specific rate of production of tylosin and related compounds (q_tylosin) was found to be a function of the growth rate. The maximum value of (q_tylosin) was observed when D = 0.017 hr^?1. At this growth rate only tylosin and relomycin accumulated in the medium. By varying the concentration of glucose in the ingoing medium it was possible to study the effects of glucose on tylosin synthesis in chemostat cultures. At a growth rate of 0.017 hr^?1, the maximum value of q_tylosin was 0.71 mg tylosin/g dry weight (DW)/hr when the glucose uptake rate was 7 mg glucose/g DW-hr. This value of q_tylosin was 40% greater than the maximum q_tylosin observed in batch culture. When glycerol was substituted for glucose in the medium, it was possible in chemostat culutures to get values of q_tylosin approximately 20% greater than those obtained with glucose at the same uptake rate. By varying the concentration of sodium glutamate in the ingoing medium it was possible to show that increasing the specific uptake rate of sodium glutamate increased the values of q_tylosin obtained. Similar chemostat experiments where the inorganic phosphate concentration in the ingoing medium was varied showed that increased the uptake of phosphate decreased the values of q_tylosin obtained. Also increasing the uptake rate of phosphate increased the relomycin-to-tylosin ratio. By taking into consideration the suppressing effects of glucose and the stimulating effects of sodium glutamate on tylosin synthesis, it was possible to formulate a medium that resulted in a value of q_tylosin of 1.1 mg/g/hr being obtained at a growth rate of 0.03 hr^?1. Batch fermentations with this medium did not follow a trophophase–idiophase kinetic pattern, but instead tylosin was actively synthesized during a period of rapid mycelial growth.     

Kinetics of product formation in batch and continuous culture of Clostridium barkeri

Summary The main fermentation end products in batch culture (unlimited glucose supply) of Clostridium barkeri were butyrate and lactate. The specific rate of butyrate production was linearly proportional to the growth rate while the specific rate of lactate production increased at low growth rates. In a glucose limited chemostat culture butyrate production was partly growth associated while acetate and lactate production was growth associated. Lactate was, however, only produced at high dilution rates. By varying the glucose concentration in the inflowing medium it was shown that lactate production was stimulated by a high feeding rate of the carbon source. These results are discussed in view of the fructose-1,6-diphosphate dependent lactate dehydrogenase activity in many other organisms.     

Loss of ethanologenicity in Escherichia coli B recombinants pLOI297 and KO11 during growth in the absence of antibiotics

Summary The two cultures under investigation were genetically engineered for the purpose of producing fuel ethanol from biomass and wastes. In this study, stability was viewed in pragmatic terms whereby the fermentation performance of the different genetic constructs was assessed solely with respect to their capacity to maintain a high efficiency of sugar-to-ethanol conversion. Two serial transfers of test tube batch cultures accounted for about 12 generations of semi-continuous growth in LB medium containing one of 4 different sugars - glucose, galactose, mannose or xylose. Both the plasmid-bearing recombinant E. coli B (ATCC 11303) pLOI297 and the chromosomally-integrated recombinant KO11 exhibited dramatic loss of ethanologenicity during growth in a selective (antibiotic-supplemented) medium with mannose as fermentation substrate. In the absence of antibiotics, both recombinants exhibited instability, with the exception of KO11 with xylose as substrate. These observations with short term cultures call into question previous claims regarding the stability of these genetic constructs.     

Kinetic models for growth and product formation on multiple substrates

Hydrolyzates from lignocellulosic biomass contain a mixture of simple sugars; the predominant ones being glucose, cellobiose and xylose. The fermentation of such mixtures to ethanol or other chemicals requires an understanding of how each of these substrates is utilized.Candida lusitaniae can efficiently produce ethanol from both glucose and cellobiose and is an attractive organism for ethanol production. Experiments were performed to obtain kinetic data for ethanol production from glucose, cellobiose and xylose. Various combinations were tested in order to determine kinetic behavior with multiple carbon sources. Glucose was shown to repress the utilization of cellobiose and xylose. However, cellobiose and xylose were simultaneously utilized after glucose depletion. Maximum volumetric ethanol production rates were 0.56, 0.33, and 0.003 g/L-h from glucose, cellobiose and xylose, respectively. A kinetic model based on cAMP mediated catabolite repression was developed. This model adequately described the growth and ethanol production from a mixture of sugars in a batch culture.     

Fed-batch xylitol production with two recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains expressing XYL1 at different levels, using glucose as a cosubstrate: a comparison of production parameters and strain stability

Xylitol production with two recombinant Sacharomyces cerevisiae strains expressing the XYL1 gene, coding for xylose reductase (XR), at different levels, the 'low XR strain' at 0.51 U/mg and the 'high XR strain' at 10.8 U/mg, was compared in batch and fed-batch culture. Xylose was not consumed in the presence of high glucose concentrations, because both sugars are transported by the glucose transport system, which has a higher affinity for glucose than for xylose. When glucose was fed gradually to the culture, high concentrations were avoided, and xylose was converted to xylitol with a specific productivity of 0.10 g g(-1) h(-1) attained with the low XR strain and 0.19 g g(-1) h(-1) with the high XR strain, indicating that factors other than the XR-activity control the rate of xylose conversion.The overproduction of XR put a substantial protein burden on the high XR strain, contributing to a 50% decrease in specific growth rate and reduced biomass yield compared with the low XR strain. Despite the use of selective medium, the stability of the high XR strain was poor in long fed-batch and chemostat cultures, whereas the low XR strain was stable. The high XR strain lost its XR activity almost completely in some fed-batch cultures and in chemostat culture. In chemostat cultivation, part of the population lost the plasmid harboring the XR gene. This was due to the fact that leucine was released into the broth from plasmid containing cells, which enabled some cells to grow without the plasmid containing the LEU2 auxotrophic complementation selection marker. Furthermore, isolation and analysis of plasmids from a population that had lost its XR activity, showed that in addition to the original plasmid, a rearranged form of the plasmid, retaining the selection marker but not the expression of active XR, was present. However, these observations could only partly explain the decrease in XR activity. (c) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 54: 391-399, 1997.     

Kinetics of biphasic growth of yeast in continuous and fed-batch cultures

The influence of dilution rate on the production of biomass, ethanol, and invertase in an aerobic culture of Saccharomyces carlsbergensis was studied in a glucose-limited chemostat culture. A kinetic model was developed to analyze the biphasic growth of yeast on both the glucose remaining and the ethanol produced in the culture. The model assumes a double effect where glucose regulates the flux of glucose catabolism (respiration and aerobic fermentation) and the ethanol utilization in yeast cells. The model could successfully demonstrate the experimental results of a chemostat culture featuring the monotonic decrease of biomass concentration with an increase of dilution rate higher than 0.2 hr^?1 as well as the maximum ethanol concentration at a particular dilution rate around 0.5 hr^?1. Some supplementary data were collected from an ethanol-limited aerobic chemostat culture and a glucose-limited anaerobic chemostat culture to use in the model calculation. Some parametric constants of cell growth, ethanol production, and invertase formation were determined in batch cultures under aerobic and anaerobic states as summarized in a table in comparison with the chemostat data. Using the constants, a prediction of the optimal control of a glucose fed-batch yeast culture was conducted in connection with an experiment for harvesting a high yield of yeast cells with high invertase activity.     

Optimization and stability of glucoamylase production by recombinant strains of Aspergillus niger in chemostat culture

When grown on a medium containing 5 g maltodextrin L-1, Aspergillus niger transformant N402[pAB6-10]B1, which has an additional 20 copies of the glucoamylase (glaA) gene, produced 320 +/- 8 mg (mean +/- S.E.) glucoamylase (GAM) L-1 in batch culture and 373 +/- 9 mg GAM L-1 in maltodextrin-limited chemostat culture at a dilution rate of 0.13 h-1. These values correspond to specific production rates (qp) of 5.6 and 16.0 mg GAM [g biomass]-1 h-1, respectively. In maltodextrin-limited chemostat cultures grown at dilution rates from 0.06 to 0.14 h-1, GAM was produced by B1 in a growth-correlated manner, demonstrating that a continuous flow culture system operated at a high dilution rate is an efficient way of producing this enzyme. In chemostat cultures grown at high dilution rates, GAM production in chemostat cultures was repressed when the limiting nutrient was fructose or xylose, but derepressed when the limiting nutrient was glucose (qp, 12.0), potassium (6.2), ammonium (4.1), phosphate (2.0), magnesium (1.5) or sulphate (0.9). For chemostat cultures grown at a dilution rate of 0.13 h-1, the addition of 5 g mycopeptone L-1 to a glucose-mineral salts medium resulted in a 64% increase in GAM concentration (from 303 +/- 12 to 496 +/- 10 mg GAM L-1) and a 37% increase in specific production rate (from 12.0 +/- 0.4 to 16.4 +/- 1.6 mg GAM [g biomass]-1 h-1). However, although recombinant protein production was stable for at least 948 h (191 generations) when A. niger B1 was grown in chemostat culture on glucose-mineral salts medium, it was stable for less than 136 h (27 generations) on medium containing mycopeptone. The predominant morphological mutants occurring after prolonged chemostat culture were shown to have selective advantage in the chemostat over the parental strain. Compared to their parental strains, two morphological mutants had similar GAM production levels, while a third had a reduced production level. Growth tests and molecular analysis revealed that the number of glaA gene copies in this latter strain (B1-M) was reduced, which could explain its reduced GAM production. Shake-flask cultures carried out with the various morphological mutants revealed that in batch culture all three strains produced considerably less GAM than their parent strains and even less than N402. We show that physiological changes in these morphological mutants contribute to this decreased level of GAM production.     

Differences in membrane proteins,cyclic AMP levels,and glucose transport between batch and chemostat cultures ofEscherichia coli

Escherichia coli bacteria were grown in minimal-salt medium with glucose as carbon source under either batch or chemostat culture conditions. The physiological state of chemostatgrown bacteria is significantly different from those grown in batch cultures. Differences were measured in outer membrane protein composition,K _m for glucose uptake, and intracellular cyclic AMP levels. Since chemostat growth conditions more closely resemble conditions bacteria encounter in nature, these physiological differences may be significant for bacterial adaptation and survival.     

Production of butanol by Clostridium puniceum in batch and continuous culture

Summary The pink-pigmented, amylolytic and pectinolytic bacterium Clostridium puniceum in anaerobic batch culture at pH 5.5 and 25–30°C produced butan-1-ol as the major product of fermentation of glucose or starch. The alcohol was formed throughout the exponential phase of growth and surprisingly little acetone was simultaneously produced. Furthermore, acetic and butyric acids were only accumulated in low concentrations, and under optimal conditions were completely re-utilised before the fermentation ceased. Thus, in a minimal medium containing 4% w/v glucose as sole source of carbon and energy, after 65 h at 25°C, pH 5.5 all of the glucose had been consumed to yield (g product/100 g glucose utilised) butanol 32, acetone 3 and ethanol 2. Butanol was again the major product of glucose fermentation during phosphate-limited chemostat culture wherein, although the organism eventually lost its capacity to sporulate and to synthesize granulose, production of butanol continued for at least 100 volume changes. Under no growth condition was the organism capable of producing more than 13.3 g l^-1 of butanol. At pH 5.5, growth on pectin was slow and yielded a markedly lesser biomass concentration than when growth was on glucose or starch; acetic acid was the major fermentation product with lower concentrations of methanol, acetone, butanol and butyric acid. At pH 7, growth on all substrates produced virtually no solvents but high concentrations of both acetic and butyric acids.     

Cellular and environmental factors affecting the synthesis of polygalacturonate lyase byBacillus subtilis

Summary Cellular and environmental factors affecting the synthesis of polygalacturonate lyase in batch and chemostat cultures ofBacillus subtilis were investigated. The lyase was produced constitutively during growth on a wide range of carbon sources in a defined minimal medium and in medium containing complex organic carbon and nitrogen sources. The highest activity was obtained during batch growth in minimal medium containing glucose and ammonium sulphate. Over 99% of the activity was present extracellularly in the supernatant medium at all stages of the batch growth cycle. Two distinct differential rates of synthesis were observed during exponential growth. The lyase was unable to attack pectin rapidly unless pectin methyl-esterase was also present. Pectin was a poor substrate for growth and polygalacturonate lyase induction because the organism did not produce pectin methyl-esterase. In continuous-flow chemostat cultures with glucose medium, polygalacturonate lyase activity declined to a very low level owing to the selection of non-productive mutant strains. Loss of activity did not occur when polypectate was the carbon source. Steady-state specific polygalacturonate lyase activity in polypectate medium was relatively independent of dilution rate in the range 0.04 to 0.36/h. When polypectate was supplied in excess of the growth requirement lyase activity was 5 times higher than during polypectate-limited growth.     

Influence of environmental factors on endo-β-1,4-glucanase production by Bacillus HR68, isolated from a Zimbabwean hot spring

The production of endo-β-1,4-glucanase by a Bacillus strain isolated from a hot spring in Zimbabwe was studied in batch culture, chemostat culture, and carbon dioxide-regulated auxostat (CO₂-auxostat). The bacteria produced the enzyme in the presence of excess glucose or sucroso, but not under carbon-limited conditions in a chemostat using mineral medium. There was a specific growth rate dependent linear increase in enzyme production in glucose excess, nitrogen-limited chemostat cultures. A high specific growth rate of 2.2 h^-1 and a high rate of enzyme production of 362 nkat (mg dry mass h)^-1 were attained under nutrient rich conditions in the CO₂-auxostat. The bacteria had the highest specific growth rate and endo-β-1,4-glucanase enzyme production at 50° C. The maximum specific growth rate and the rate of enzyme production increased when yeast extract and tryptone were added in increasing amounts to the mineral medium used for cultivation in separate experiments. Increasing the glucose concentration in the CO₂-auxostat cultures increased the rate of enzyme production but did not affect the specific growth rate.     

Thiobacillus strain Q,a chemolithoheterotrophic sulphur bacterium

The physiological properties of an organism isolated from a selective chemostat enrichment using acetate and thiosulphate as the limiting substrates, provisionally called Thiobacillus Q, were investigated. Although the organism made up 85% of the community in the enrichment culture, its expected chemolithotrophic nature was not apparent in batch experiments. The growth yield was not enhanced by the addition of thiosulphate to an acetate containing mineral medium, even though up to 50% of the thiosulphate was oxidized. Under acetate limitation in the chemostat, there was a linear increase in yield with thiosulphate addition up to a concentration of 7 mM. Higher thiosulphate concentrations resulted in loss of thiosulphate oxidizing capacity and a decrease in the biomass to the level obtained with acetate alone. This loss may be due to the presence of inhibitory (50–100 M) levels of sulphite which is probably produced as an intermediate of the biological thiosulphate oxidation. Experiments with sulphide showed that Thiobacillus Q could also use it as an additional energy source. The complete lack of autotrophic growth, both in batch and chemostat experiments, together with the absence of even very low amounts of the key enzymes of the Calvin cycle demonstrated that this organism is a typical chemolithoheterotroph. Although this organism has provisionally been placed in the genus Thiobacillus, standard taxonomic procedures showed a close relationship with Pseudomonas alcaligenes. This study stresses the importance of quantitative chemostat studies in establishing the role of inorganic oxidations in energy metabolism and in the understanding of the role of heterotrophic sulphur oxidation in natural environments.     

Amino acid supplementation improves heterologous protein production by Saccharomyces cerevisiae in defined medium

Supplementation of a chemically defined medium with amino acids or succinate to improve heterologous xylanase production by a prototrophic Saccharomyces cerevisiae transformant was investigated. The corresponding xylanase production during growth on ethanol in batch culture and in glucose-limited chemostat culture were quantified, as the native ADH2 promoter regulating xylanase expression was derepressed under these conditions. The addition of a balanced mixture of the preferred amino acids, Ala, Arg, Asn, Glu, Gln and Gly, improved both biomass and xylanase production, whereas several other individual amino acids inhibited biomass and/or xylanase production. Heterologous protein production by the recombinant yeast was also improved by supplementing the medium with succinate. The production of heterologous xylanase during growth on ethanol or glucose could thus be improved by supplementing metabolic precursors in the carbon- or nitrogen-metabolism.     

Effects of medium composition and nutrient limitation on loss of the recombinant plasmid pLG669-z and β -galactosidase expression by Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The effects of medium composition, nutrient limitation and dilution rate on the loss of the recombinant plasmid pLG669-z and plasmid-borne β -galactosidase expression were studied in batch and chemostat cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain CGpLG. The difference in growth rates between plasmid-free and plasmid-containing cells (Δμ) and the rate of segregation (R) were determined and some common factors resulting from the effect of medium composition on plasmid loss were identified. Glucose-limited chemostat cultures of CGpLG grown on defined medium were more stable at higher dilution rates and exhibited Δμ -dominated plasmid loss kinetics. Similar cultures grown on complex medium were more stable at lower dilution rates and exhibited R-dominated plasmid loss kinetics. Overall plasmid stability was greatest in phosphate-limited chemostat cultures grown on defined medium and was least stable in magnesium-limited cultures grown on defined medium. Δμ decreased and R increased with increased dilution rate, irrespective of medium composition. Increased plasmid loss rates at high or low dilution rates would appear to be characteristic of loss kinetics dominated by R or Δμ, respectively. Growth of glucose-limited chemostat cultures on complex medium decreased Δμ values but increased R values, in comparison to those cultures grown on defined medium. Any increased stability that a complex medium-induced reduction of Δμ may have conferred was counteracted by an increased R value. Increased β-galactosidase productivity was correlated with increased plasmid stability only in glucose-limited chemostat cultures grown on defined medium and not in those grown on complex medium. Previous studies have yielded contrasting responses with regard to the effect of dilution rate on recombinant plasmid loss from S. cerevisiae. Our findings can account for these differences and may be generally valid for the stability of similar yeast plasmid constructs. This information would facilitate the design of bioprocesses, where recombinant plasmid instability results in reduced culture productivity. Received 08 July 1996/ Accepted in revised form 14 January 1997     

A constitutive catabolite repression mutant of a recombinantSaccharomyces cerevisiae strain improves xylose consumption during fermentation

Efficient xylose utilisation by microorganisms is of importance to the lignocellulose fermentation industry. The aim of this work was to develop constitutive catabolite repression mutants in a xylose-utilising recombinantSaccharomyces cerevisiae strain and evaluate the differences in xylose consumption under fermentation conditions.S. cerevisiae YUSM was constitutively catabolite repressed through specific disruptions within theMIG1 gene. The strains were grown aerobically in synthetic complete medium with xylose as the sole carbon source. Constitutive catabolite repressed strain YCR17 grew four-fold better on xylose in aerobic conditions than the control strain YUSM. Anaerobic batch fermentation in minimal medium with glucose-xylose mixtures and N-limited chemostats with varying sugar concentrations were performed. Sugar utilisation and metabolite production during fermentation were monitored. YCR17 exhibited a faster xylose consumption rate than YUSM under high glucose conditions in nitrogen-limited chemostat cultivations. This study shows that a constitutive catabolite repressed mutant could be used to enhance the xylose consumption rate even in the presence of high glucose in the fermentation medium. This could help in reducing fermentation time and cost in mixed sugar fermentation.     

Engineering of carbon catabolite repression in recombinant xylose fermenting<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Saccharomyces cerevisiae</Emphasis>

Two xylose-fermenting glucose-derepressed Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains were constructed in order to investigate the influence of carbon catabolite repression on xylose metabolism. S. cerevisiae CPB.CR2 (mig1, XYL1, XYL2, XKS1) and CPB.MBH2 (mig1, mig2, XYL1, XYL2, XKS1) were analysed for changes in xylose consumption rate and ethanol production rate during anaerobic batch and chemostat cultivations on a mixture of 20 g l^–1 glucose and 50 g l^–1 xylose, and their characteristics were compared to the parental strain S. cerevisiae TMB3001 (XYL1, XYL2, XKS1). Improvement of xylose utilisation was limited during batch cultivations for the constructed strains compared to the parental strain. However, a 25% and 12% increased xylose consumption rate during chemostat cultivation was achieved for CPB.CR2 and CPB.MBH2, respectively. Furthermore, during chemostat cultivations of CPB.CR2, where the cells are assumed to grow under non-repressive conditions as they sense almost no glucose, invertase activity was lower during growth on xylose and glucose than on glucose only. The 3-fold reduction in invertase activity could only be attributed to the presence of xylose, suggesting that xylose is a repressive sugar for S. cerevisiae.     

Xylitol production in repeated fed batch cultivation

The ability of Candida parapsilosis to produce xylitol was tested using successive substrate supplies, and the importance of the amount of viable cells in enhancing the conversion rate was demonstrated. The suitability of this yeast for the production of xylitol was investigated in repeated fed-batch cultivation, using pure xylose or mixtures of xylose and glucose. The use of this process increased productivity by about 40% compared with simple batch cultivation without loss of yield of product on substrate. The presence of glucose in the culture medium seemed to stimulate the specific growth rate, but had no influence over other fermentative parameters.