Enhanced cephalosporin C production with a novel DO‐Stat based carbon resources co‐feeding strategy

Abstract

Background To solve the problems of high by‐product accumulations and low substrate utilization efficiencies in the traditional cephalosporin C (CPC) fermentation process, a novel DO‐Stat based substrates co‐feeding strategy for CPC production by Acremonium chrysogenum (A. chrysogenum) was conducted in a 7 L fermentor using the addition of glucose coupled with soybean oil. RESULTS Compared with the sole soybean oil feeding method, the final CPC concentration was enhanced from 25.3 g L‐1 to a higher level of 31.9 g L‐1 by the novel substrate co‐feeding strategy. The major by‐product of deacetoxycephalosporin C (DAOC) was reduced from 0.32 g L‐1 to a lower level of 0.092 g L‐1, and the final DAOC/CPC ratio (0.28%) reached the CPC fermentation quality standard (below 0.5%). Metabolic flux analysis revealed that the carbon fluxes in the CPC synthesis related route were increased about 2.2‐fold by applying the novel substrate co‐feeding strategy. Conclusion The results indicated that the co‐feeding of glucose and soybean oil in the main CPC production phase was desirable for CPC fermentation, and led to higher CPC production/yield and substrate utilization efficiencies but less DAOC accumulation. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry