Effects of different carbon sources on the synthesis of pectinase by Aspergillus niger in submerged and solid state fermentations

A study was made to compare the production of pectinase by Aspergillus niger CH4 in solid-state (SSF) and submerged (SmF) fermentations. Production of endo- (endo-p) and exo-pectinase (exo-p) by SSF was not reduced when glucose, sucrose or galacturonic acid (up to 10%) were added to a culture medium containing pectin. Moreover, both activities increased when concentrations of the carbon sources were also increased. In SmF, these activities were strongly decreased when glucose or sucrose (3%) was added to culture medium containing pectin. The addition of galacturonic acid affected endo-p activity production to a lesser extend than exo-p. Final endo-p and exo-p activities in SSF were three and 11 times higher, respectively, than those obtained in SmF. The overall productivities of SSF were 18.8 and 4.9 times higher for endo-p and exo-p, respectively, than those in SmF. These results indicate that regulatory phenomena, such as induction-repression or activation-inhibition, related to pectinase synthesis by A. niger CH4 are different in the two types of fermentation. Correspondence to: E. Favela-Torres