Sugar beet diffusion juice and syrup as media for ethanol and levan production byZymomonas mobilis

Recent Developments and Applications of Microbial Levan, A Versatile Polysaccharide-Based Biopolymer

Polysaccharides are essential components with diverse functions in living organisms and find widespread applications in various industries. They serve as food additives, stabilizers, thickeners, and fat substitutes in the food industry, while also contributing to dietary fiber for improved digestion and gut health. Plant-based polysaccharides are utilized in paper, textiles, wound dressings, biodegradable packaging, and tissue regeneration. Polysaccharides play a crucial role in medicine, pharmacy, and cosmetology, as well as in the production of biofuels and biomaterials. Among microbial biopolymers, microbial levan, a fructose polysaccharide, holds significant promise due to its high productivity and chemical diversity. Levan exhibits a wide range of properties, including film-forming ability, biodegradability, non-toxicity, self-aggregation, encapsulation, controlled release capacity, water retention, immunomodulatory and prebiotic activity, antimicrobial and anticancer activity, as well as high biocompatibility. These exceptional properties position levan as an attractive candidate for nature-based materials in food production, modern cosmetology, medicine, and pharmacy. Advancing the understanding of microbial polymers and reducing production costs is crucial to the future development of these fields. By further exploring the potential of microbial biopolymers, particularly levan, we can unlock new opportunities for sustainable materials and innovative applications that benefit various industries and contribute to advancements in healthcare, environmental conservation, and biotechnology.

Co-production of levan with other high-value bioproducts: A review

Levan is a homopolysaccharide of fructose that has both scientific and industrial importance, with various applications in health, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. Despite its broad spectrum of uses, there are only a limited number of commercial levan sources due to the high costs related to its production. To make production economically viable, efforts have been concentrated on the selection of levan-producing microorganisms, the genetic manipulation of new strains, and the use of inexpensive agro-industrial byproducts as substrates. Another efficient strategy involves the concomitant synthesis of other products with high market value and as such, the successful co-production of levan was demonstrated with fructooligosaccharides, ethanol, sorbitol, poly-ε-lysine, poly-γ-glutamic acid and polyhydroxyalkanoates. This paper offers a systematic review of important aspects regarding recent strategies involving the simultaneous synthesis of levan and other bioproducts of aggregate value reported to date and discusses the challenges and opportunities for its large-scale production and applications.