A Critical Look at Bioproducts Co-cultured Under Solid State Fermentation and Their Challenges and Industrial Applications

Abstract

The production of bioproducts from microorganisms is a common practice in many industries for a long time now. In recent years, studies have proved that co-culturing microorganisms increase the yield of products by synergistically degrading the solid substrate in comparison with individual cultures. The review highlights the benefits of co-culturing microorganisms using solid state fermentation (SSF) to achieve higher productivity. Filamentous fungi of genus Trichoderma, Penicillium, and Aspergillus are extensively studied and used for co-culturing and mixed culturing under SSF. Co-cultured microorganisms are beneficial because of the synergistic expression of metabolic pathways of all the microorganisms. Co-culture enables combined metabolic activity at optimal process conditions for better utilization of substrates. Depending on the nature of the process and microorganism, bioreactors are designed and operated. This review mentions various purification methods that are used to improve the purity of the products obtained. The strengths and weaknesses of various bioreactors and their effect on the microorganisms used are explained in detail. This review also identifies the challenges of co-culturing microorganisms and analyses the diverse set of fields in which SSF finds its applications. Graphical Abstract

Antioxidant properties of water-soluble polysaccharides prepared by co-culture fermentation of straw and shrimp shell

“…LYM-1 to its monomer N -acetylglucosamine as the main carbon source instead of Glc. However, Rib was not detected in AP-WSPs, and the proportion of Rib in PsL/AP-WSPs was higher, owing to the benefit of co-culture fermentation ( 44 ).…”

Comparison of Pigment Production by Filamentous Fungal Strains under Submerged (SmF) and Surface Adhesion Fermentation (SAF)

“…From these results, further approaches including transcriptomic analysis of pigment biosynthesis and genomics-driven optimization processes should be considered, so that productivity parameters can be also validated on natural substrates. Additionally, co-cultures under SSF could be considered a promising strategy by which to increase pigment production yields [ 79 ].…”

Beneficial effects, challenges and opportunities of the filamentous fungus, Aspergillus niger with special reference to the shrimp feed industry—A review

“…This may generate much interest in fermenting plant protein sources for making inexpensive commercial formulations. However, contamination is quite a challenge during the co‐culturing process, hence; the synergism of each species needs to be studied prior to culture to reduce the antagonism effects that affect the quality of products 167 . It is also suggested for manipulation of microbial strains to have higher synergy with each other.…”

“…Improving the fungal strain and/or re-designing its metabolic process helps to increase its utilization in biotechnological aspects that can be achieved using modern genetic engineering technology. Prabhu et al 167 reported that the recombinant or mutated strains had a higher tolerance to environmental variations and the ability in improving product quality. Richter et al 168 reported that the timing of secondary metabolite formation by A. niger was controlled effectively by an engineering tool called the Tet-on system, which not only increases the purity of products but also the yield.…”