Influence of culture conditions on production and freeze-drying tolerance of Paecilomyces fumosoroseus blastospores

With the goal of developing a defined medium for the production of desiccation-tolerant blastospores of the bioinsecticidal fungus Paecilomyces fumosoroseus, we evaluated the impact of various media components such as amino acids, carbohydrates, trace metals and vitamins on hyphal growth and sporulation of P. fumosoroseus cultures and on the freeze-drying tolerance of blastospores produced under these conditions. A comparison of 13 amino acids as sole nitrogen sources showed that glutamate, aspartate, glycine and arginine supported biomass accumulations (12–16 mg ml⁻¹) and blastospore yields (6–11 × 10⁸ blastospores ml⁻¹) comparable to our standard production medium which contains casamino acids as the nitrogen source. Using glutamate as the sole nitrogen source, tests with various carbohydrates showed that P. fumosoroseus grew best on glucose (18.8 mg biomass ml⁻¹) but produced similar blastospore concentrations (7.3–11.0 × 10⁸) when grown with glucose, glycerol, fructose or sucrose. P. fumosoroseus cultures grown in media with sodium citrate or galactose as the sole carbohydrate produced lower blastospore concentrations but more-desiccation-tolerant spores. Zinc was the only trace metal tested that was required for optimal growth and sporulation. In a defined medium with glutamate as the nitrogen source, vitamins were unnecessary for P. fumosoroseus growth or sporulation. When blastospores were freeze-dried in the absence of a suspension medium, residual glucose (>2.5% w/v) was required for enhanced spore survival. Thus, a defined medium containing basal salts, glucose, glutamate and zinc can be used to produce optimal concentrations of desiccation-tolerant blastospores of P. fumosoroseus. Received 27 October 1998/ Accepted in revised form 06 May 1999