Development of an animal-free nitrogen source for the liquid surface culture of Cordyceps militaris

Abstract

Cordyceps militaris is a medicinal mushroom in Asia in the twenty-first century, which cordycepin is a significant bioactive compound. This study investigated the effect of culture conditions and vegetable seed extract powder (VSEP) as a supplementary source of animal-free nitrogen on the production of cordycepin by C. militaris in liquid surface culture. The highest cordycepin production was observed under SBEP conditions, and 80 g/L of SBEP supplementation increased cordycepin production to 2.52 g/L, which was greater than the control (peptone). Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to examine the transcription levels, and the results showed that supplementing with SBEP 80 g/L significantly increased the expression of genes associated with the carbon metabolic pathway, amino acid metabolism, and two key genes involved in the cordycepin biosynthesis (cns1 and NT5E) compared to peptone-supplemented culture. Under optimal culture conditions, the model predicted a maximum response of cordycepin production of 2.64 g/L at a working volume of 147.5 ml, an inoculum size of 8.8% v/v, and a cultivation time of 40.0 days. This optimized culture condition could be used to increase cordycepin production in large-scale bioreactors. Additional research can be conducted to assess the economic viability of this process.

Advances in biosynthesis and metabolic engineering strategies of cordycepin

“…The addition of 80 g/L soybean extract powder (SBEP) increased the cordycepin production up to 2.52 g/L, which was greater than the control (peptone). Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) result revealed that 80 g/L SBEP significantly increased the expression of genes linked with the carbon metabolic pathway, amino acid metabolism, and two crucial genes involved in the cordycepin biosynthesis ( Cns1 and NT5E ) compared to peptone-supplemented culture ( Sripilai et al, 2023 ).…”