Bioconversion of d-xylose to xylitol by Debaryomyces hansenii UFV-170: Product formation versus growth

Modeling and simulation of xylitol production in bioreactor by Debaryomyces nepalensis NCYC 3413 using unstructured and artificial neural network models

This study examines the use of unstructured kinetic model and artificial neural networks as predictive tools for xylitol production by Debaryomyces nepalensis NCYC 3413 in bioreactor. An unstructured kinetic model was proposed in order to assess the influence of pH (4, 5 and 6), temperature (25°C, 30°C and 35°C) and volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient kLa (0.14h(-1), 0.28h(-1) and 0.56h(-1)) on growth and xylitol production. A feed-forward back-propagation artificial neural network (ANN) has been developed to investigate the effect of process condition on xylitol production. ANN configuration of 6-10-3 layers was selected and trained with 339 experimental data points from bioreactor studies. Results showed that simulation and prediction accuracy of ANN was apparently higher when compared to unstructured mechanistic model under varying operational conditions. ANN was found to be an efficient data-driven tool to predict the optimal harvest time in xylitol production.

Study of the potential of the air lift bioreactor for xylitol production in fed-batch cultures by Debaryomyces hansenii immobilized in alginate beads

Cell immobilization has shown to be especially adequate for xylitol production. This work studies the suitability of the air lift bioreactor for xylitol production by Debaryomyces hansenii immobilized in Ca-alginate operating in fed-batch cultures to avoid substrate inhibition. The results showed that the air lift bioreactor is an adequate system since the minimum air flow required for fluidization was even lower than that leading to the microaerobic conditions that trigger xylitol accumulation by this yeast, also maintaining the integrity of the alginate beads and the viability of the immobilized cells until 3 months of reuses. Maximum productivities and yields of 0.43 g/l/h and 0.71 g/g were achieved with a xylose concentration of 60 g/l after each feeding. The xylose feeding rate, the air flow, and the biomass concentration at the beginning of the fed-batch operation have shown to be critical parameters for achieving high productivities and yields. Although a maximum xylitol production of 139 g/l was obtained, product inhibition was evidenced in batch experiments, which allowed estimating at 200 and 275 g/l the IC50 for xylitol productivity and yield, respectively. The remarkable production of glycerol in the absence of glucose was noticeable, which could not only be attributed to the osmoregulatory function of this polyol in conditions of high osmotic pressure caused by high xylitol concentrations but also to the role of the glycerol synthesis pathway in the regeneration of NAD(+) in conditions of suboptimal microaeration caused by insufficient aeration or high oxygen demand when high biomass concentrations were achieved.

Purification and biochemical characterization of a moderately halotolerant NADPH dependent xylose reductase from Debaryomyces nepalensis NCYC 3413

A Xylose reductase (XR) from the halotolerant yeast, Debaryomyces nepalensis NCYC 3413 was purified to apparent homogeneity. The enzyme has a molecular mass of 74 kDa with monomeric subunit of 36.4 kDa (MALDI-TOF/MS) and pI of 6.0. The enzyme exhibited its maximum activity at pH 7.0 and 45 °C (21.2U/mg). In situ gel digestion and peptide mass fingerprinting analysis showed 12-22% sequence homology with XR from other yeasts. Inhibition of the enzyme by DEPC (diethylpyrocarbonate) confirmed the presence of histidine residue in its active site. The enzyme exhibited high preference for pentoses over hexoses with greater catalytic efficiency for arabinose than xylose. The enzyme also showed absolute specificity with NADPH over NADH. The enzyme retained 90% activity with 100 mM of NaCl or KCl and 40% activity with 1 M KCl which suggest that the enzyme is moderately halotolerant and can be utilized for commercial production of xylitol under conditions where salts are present.

Semi-continuous xylose-to-xylitol bioconversion by Ca-alginate entrapped yeast cells in a stirred tank reactor

Candida guilliermondii FTI 20037 cells were entrapped in Ca-alginate beads and used for xylose-to-xylitol bioconversions during five successive batches in a stirred tank reactor. Supplemented sugarcane bagasse hemicellulosic hydrolysate was used as the fermentation medium. The average volume of the Ca-alginate beads was reduced by about 30% after the 600 h taken to perform the five bioconversion cycles, thus demonstrating physical instability under the conditions prevailing in the reactor vessel. In spite of this, almost steady bioconversion rates and yields were observed along the repeated batches. In average values, a production of 51.6 g l(-1), a productivity of 0.43 g l(-1 )h(-1) and a yield of 0.71 g g(-1) were attained in each batch, variation coefficients being smaller than 10%.

Isolation and Characterization of Xylitol-Producing Yeasts from the Gut of Colleopteran Insects

A total of 35 yeasts were isolated from the gut of beetles collected from Hyderabad city, India. Twenty of these yeasts utilized xylose as a sole carbon source but only 12 of these converted xylose to xylitol. The ability to convert xylose to xylitol varied among the isolates and ranged from 0.12 to 0.58 g/g xylose. Based on the phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of the D1/D2 domain sequence of 26S rRNA gene, these isolates were identified as members of Pichia, Candida, Issatchenkia, and Clavispora. Strain YS 54 (CBS 10446), which was phylogenetically similar to Pichia caribbica and which formed hat-shaped ascospore characteristics of the genus Pichia, was the best xylitol producer (0.58 g xylitol/g xylose). YS 54 was also capable of producing xylitol from sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate and the efficiency of conversion was 0.32 g xylitol/g xylose after 20 cycles of adaptation in medium containing sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate.

Influence of inhibitory compounds and minor sugars on xylitol production by Debaryomyces hansenii

To obtain in-depth information on the overall metabolic behavior of the new good xylitol producer Debaryomyces hansenii UFV-170, batch bioconversions were carried out using semisynthetic media with compositions simulating those of typical acidic hemicellulose hydrolysates of sugarcane bagasse. For this purpose, we used media containing glucose (4.3-6.5 g/L), xylose (60.1-92.1 g/L), or arabinose (5.9-9.2 g/L), or binary or ternary mixtures of them in either the presence or absence of typical inhibitors of acidic hydrolysates, such as furfural (1.0-5.0 g/L), hydroxymethylfurfural (0.01- 0.30 g/L), acetic acid (0.5-3.0 g/L), and vanillin (0.5-3.0 g/L). D. hansenii exhibited a good tolerance to high sugar concentrations as well as to the presence of inhibiting compounds in the fermentation media. It was able to produce xylitol only from xylose, arabitol from arabinose, and no glucitol from glucose. Arabinose metabolization was incomplete, while ethanol was mainly produced from glucose and, to a lesser less extent, from xylose and arabinose. The results suggest potential application of this strain in xyloseto- xylitol bioconversion from complex xylose media from lignocellulosic materials.