Production of Hormoconis resinae glucoamylase P by a stable industrial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Airlift-driven fibrous-bed bioreactor for continuous production of glucoamylase using immobilized recombinant yeast cells

Continuous production of a fungal glucoamylase by immobilized recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain C468 containing plasmid pGAC9. Yeast cells were immobilized on hydrophilic cotton cloth in an inverse internal loop airlift-driven bioreactor. Free-cell culture in the airlift and stirred tank bioreactors confirmed the plasmid instability of the recombinant yeast. Enhanced glucoamylase productivity and plasmid stability were observed both in the free and immobilized cell cultures in the airlift bioreactor system. The glucoamylase level of the free-cell culture in the airlift bioreactor was approximately 20% higher than that in the in stirred tank bioreactor due to high cell density (cell dry weight/volume of bioreactor) and fraction of the plasmid-carrying cells. A potentially high glucoamylase activity of 161U/L and a corresponding volumetric productivity of 3.5U/Lh were achieved when a cell density of approximately 85g/L (or 12.3g/g fiber) was attained in the fibrous-bed immobilized cell bioreactor system. The stable glucoamylase production was achieved after five generations, at which time a fraction of approximately 62% of the plasmid-carrying cells was realized in the immobilized cell system. Plasmid stability was increased for the immobilized cells during continuous culture at the operating dilution rate. The volumetric and specific productivities and fraction of plasmid-carrying cells in the immobilized cell system were higher than in the free-cell counterpart, however. This was in part due to the high viability (approximately 80%) in the immobilized cell system and the selective immobilization of the plasmid-carrying cells in the fibrous bed, and perhaps increased plasmid copy number.

Plasmid stability and kinetics of continuous production of glucoamylase by recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae in an airlift bioreactor

Production of glucoamylase by recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae C468/pGAC9 (ATCC 20690) in a continuous stirred tank bioreactor was studied at different dilution rates. Plasmid stability was found to be growth (dilution rate) dependent; it increased with the dilution rate. Bioreactor productivity and specific productivity also increased with the dilution rate. A kinetic equation was used to model the plasmid stability kinetics. The growth rate ratio between plasmid-carrying and plasmid-free cells decreased from 1.397 to 1.215, and segregational instability or probability of plasmid loss from each cell division decreased from 0.059 to 0.020 as the dilution rate increased from 0.10 to 0.37 1/h. The specific growth rates increased with dilution rate, while the growth rate difference between plasmid-carrying and plasmid-free cell populations was negligible. This was attributed to the low copy number of the hybrid plasmid pGAC9. Thus, the growth rate had no significant effect on plasmid instability. The proposed kinetics was consistent with experimental results, and the model simulated the experimental data well.