Efficient Production of Scleroglucan by Sclerotium rolfsii and Insights Into Molecular Weight Modification by High-Pressure Homogenization

Abstract

Scleroglucan is a non-ionic water-soluble polysaccharide, and has been widely used in the petroleum, food, medicine and cosmetics industries. Currently, scleroglucan is mainly produced by Sclerotium rolfsii. A higher level of scleroglucan (42.0 g/L) was previously obtained with S. rolfsii WSH-G01. However, the production of scleroglucan was reduced despite a higher glucose concentration remaining. Additionally, the molecular weight of scleroglucan was large, thus restricted its application. In this study, by adjusting the state of seeds inoculated, the degradation issue of scleroglucan during the fermentation process was solved. By comparing different fed-batch strategies, 66.6 g/L of scleroglucan was harvested by a two-dose fed-batch mode, with 53.3% glucose conversion ratio. To modify the molecular weight of scleroglucan, a combination method with HCl and high-pressure homogenization treatment was established. Finally, scleroglucan with molecular weight of 4.61 × 105 Da was obtained. The developed approaches provide references for the biosynthesis and molecular weight modification of polysaccharides.

Evaluation of two fungal exopolysaccharides as potential biomaterials for wound healing applications

“…The total yield of the Scl produced by S. glucanicum (0.9 ± 0.07 g/L) was not comparable to the Scl yields of 7.14 -42 g/L reported in the literature (Selbmann et al 2002;Zeng et al 2021). This lower yield can be attributed to the differences in fungal strains employed in the EPS production.…”

“…It is a water-soluble EPS produced by fungi of the genus Sclerotium. i.e., Sclerotium glucanicum, Sclerotium rolfsii and Sclerotium delphinii (Elsehemy et al 2020a;Zeng et al 2021). Scl has various applications in the oil, food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries (Mahapatra and Banerjee 2013;Keshavarz et al 2022).…”

Exopolysaccharides of Fungal Origin: Properties and Pharmaceutical Applications

“…Regarding the nitrogen source, it can be represented by a wide range of inorganic and organic compounds, such as inorganic salts of NH4 + and NO3 − , or natural products, including yeast extract, corn steep liquor, soya or casein hydrolysate [62]. Scleroglucan provides significant advantages in terms of biocompatibility, pseudoplasticity, water solubility, resistance to hydrolysis, salt tolerance, moisture retention, and viscosity stability due to its unique chemical structure and higher molecular weight [64].…”

Carboxymethyl Scleroglucan Synthesized via O-Alkylation Reaction with Different Degrees of Substitution: Rheology and Thermal Stability

“…The solubility, viscosity, surface, and interfacial properties of polysaccharides depend on the monosaccharide composition, types of bonding between monosaccharides, molecular structure (linear or branched), and molecular weight [ 9 ]. The unique chemical structure and higher molecular weight of SG provide distinctive physicochemical properties to this biopolymer (such as high-water solubility, pseudo-plasticity, resistance to hydrolysis, salt tolerance, and viscosity stability) [ 10 ], granting it an advantage over other polysaccharides.…”