N+ ion beam implantation of tannase-producing Aspergillus niger and optimization of its process parameters under submerged fermentation

Low-energy ion implantation as a novel mutagen has been increasingly applied in the microbial mutagenesis for its higher mutation frequency and wider mutation spectra. In this work, N⁺ ion beam implantation was used to enhance Aspergillus niger TA9701 in tannase yield. The optimization of process parameters under submerged fermentation was carried out to further improve the tannase yield of the mutant, Aspergillus niger J-T18. The results indicate that an excellent mutant J-T18 with a yield of 38.5 IU/mL, that is five times that of the original strain, was achieved by nine successive implantations under the conditions of 10 keV and 30–40 (×2.6?×?10¹³) ions/cm². This optimization further increased the yield of the mutant by 42 %, i.e. 53.6 U/mL which occurred in the mutant cultivated in the optimal fermentation culture medium composed of: rice flour 5 %; ammonium sulfate 1 %; tannic acid 2 %; calcium carbonate 0.5 %; manganese sulfate 0.1 %; and dipotassium phosphate 0.3 %; incubated at 30°C and 180 rpm for 72 h.