Influence of culture modes on the microbial production of hyaluronic acid by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Streptococcus zooepidemicus</Emphasis>

The principal objective of this study was to assess the effects of culture modes including batch culture, pulse fed-batch culture, constant feeding rate fed-batch culture, and exponential fed-batch culture on the production of hyaluronic acid (HA) by Streptococcus zooepidemicus. Batch cultures had the highest levels of HA productivity, whereas fed-batch cultures were more favorable with regard to cell growth, and exponential fed-batch cultures evidenced the highest cell concentrations. A two-step culture model was proposed to enhance HA production: an exponential fed-batch culture was conducted prior to 8 h and then sucrose supplementation was applied for 8 h to start the batch fermentation of S. zooepidemicus. HA production and productivity were increased by 36 and 37% in the proposed two-step culture process as compared with that observed in the batch culture, respectively. The proposed two-step culture model can be applied in the production of secondary metabolites, and particularly of the exopolysaccharides.