Astaxanthin production by a Phaffia rhodozyma mutant on grape juice

Abstract

During fermenter cultivation of Phaffia rhodozyma on a grape juice medium, the presence of glucose initially delayed fructose utilization, although fructose was consumed before glucose depletion. Total pigment and astaxanthin production were growth associated and reached maximum values of 15.9 μg/ml and 9.8 μg/ml, respectively, after depletion of the carbon source. The total cellular pigment and astaxanthin content increased during the stationary growth phase due to a decrease in biomass, reaching final values of 2120 μg/g and 1350 μg/g, respectively, without the volumetric concentration in the culture changing. The final cell yield was 0.33 g/g sugar utilized. High sugar concentrations in shake-flasks as well as O2 limitation decreased the astaxanthin content of the cells. Addition of yeast extract to a grape juice minimal medium markedly increased the maximum specific growth rate, total pigment and astaxanthin content of the cells. An excess of ammonia decreased the intracellular astaxanthin content, which reached a maximal value in cultures with no residual glucose or ammonia.

Carotenoids from Rhodotorula and Phaffia: yeasts of biotechnological importance

“…In X. dendrorhous, astaxanthin production was also proposed to be photo-inducible [89]. It was observed that the astaxanthin concentration was almost constant in cells grown in the dark but high levels of astaxanthin were present under strong light illumination.…”

“…Yeasts can synthesize carotenoids when cultivated in synthetic medium, containing various reWned carbon sources, such as glucose [9,22,23,25,31,[80][81][82][83][84][85][86], xylose [74], cellobiose [85], sucrose [87,88], glycerol [71] and sorbitol [85]. Studies on carotenogenesis have led to a growing interest in using natural substrates as carbon sources: grape juice [72,89]; grape must [11,63]; peat extract and peat hydrolysate [20,21,77,90]; date juice of Yucca Wllifera [76]; hydrolyzed mustard waste isolates [28]; hemicellulosic hydrolysates of eucalyptus globules wood [68,75]; hydrolyzed mung bean waste Xour [91]; sugar cane juice [69,73,78]; sugar cane and sugar-beet molasses [8,10,18,92,93]; corn syrup [18,64]; corn hydrolysate [94,95]; milk whey [15,16,…”

Synthesis of carotenoids by Rhodotorula rubra GED8 co-cultured with yogurt starter cultures in whey ultrafiltrate

“…Yeasts can synthesize carotenoids when cultivated in synthetic media containing various monosaccharides or disaccharides [10,14,28]. Studies on carotenogenesis have led to a growing interest in using natural substrates as carbon sources (grape juice, glucose syrup, grape must, soybean flour extract, maize flour extract, peat extract and peat hydrolysate, molasses, corn syrup) [1,7,8,9,22,23,24,25]. In recent years, raw materials and by-products of agro-industrial origin have been proposed as low-cost alternative carbohydrate sources for microbial metabolite production, with the view also of minimizing environmental and energetic problems related to their disposal [15].…”

“…Carotenoid biosynthesis is a specific feature of species of Rhodotorula [7,10,24,27], Rhodosporidium [21], and Phaffia [22,23,25] genera. The major carotenoid pigments produced by the yeasts Rhodotorula and Rhodosporidium are b-carotene, torulene, and torularhodin, in various proportions [7,10,21,27], and astaxanthin by Phaffia rhodozyma [11,22,23,27].…”

Utilization of mustard waste isolates for improved production of astaxanthin by Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous

“…Previous studies using low-cost by-products and residues of agro-industrial origin have shown the possibility of astaxanthin production from several materials such as molasses [9], grape juice [15], hemicelullose hydrolysates of eucalyptus [19], peat hydrolysates [25], and hydroysates from Yucca fillifera [22]. Use of these low-cost culture media showed significantly increased growth and astaxanthin synthesis (1.1-3.8-fold) compared to yeast extract/malt extract (YM) medium.…”