Optimization of agroindustrial medium for the production of carotenoids by wild yeast Sporidiobolus pararoseus

Natural Substrates and Culture Conditions to Produce Pigments from Potential Microbes in Submerged Fermentation

Pigments from bacteria, fungi, yeast, cyanobacteria, and microalgae have been gaining more demand in the food, leather, and textile industries due to their natural origin and effective bioactive functions. Mass production of microbial pigments using inexpensive and ecofriendly agro-industrial residues is gaining more demand in the current research due to their low cost, natural origin, waste utilization, and high pigment stimulating characteristics. A wide range of natural substrates has been employed in submerged fermentation as carbon and nitrogen sources to enhance the pigment production from these microorganisms to obtain the required quantity of pigments. Submerged fermentation is proven to yield more pigment when added with agro-waste residues. Hence, in this review, aspects of potential pigmented microbes such as diversity, natural substrates that stimulate more pigment production from bacteria, fungi, yeast, and a few microalgae under submerged culture conditions, pigment identification, and ecological functions are detailed for the benefit of industrial personnel, researchers, and other entrepreneurs to explore pigmented microbes for multifaceted applications. In addition, some important aspects of microbial pigments are covered herein to disseminate the knowledge.

Agro-Industrial Residues: Eco-Friendly and Inexpensive Substrates for Microbial Pigments Production

Many commodities are abundantly produced around the world, including soybean, corn, rice sugarcane, cassava, coffee, fruits, and many others. These productions are responsible for the generation of enormous amounts of daily residues, such as cassava and sugarcane bagasses, rice husk, and coffee peel. These residues are rich sources for renewable energy and can be used as substrates for industrial interest products. Microorganisms are useful biofactories, capable of producing important primary and secondary metabolites, including alcohol, enzymes, antibiotics, pigments, and many other molecules. The production of pigments was reported in bacteria, filamentous fungi, yeasts, and algae. These natural microbial pigments are very promising because synthetic colorants present a long history of allergies and toxicity. In addition, many natural pigments present other biological activities, such as antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, that are interesting for industrial applications. The use of inexpensive substrates for the production of these metabolites is very attractive, considering that agro-industrial residues are generated in high amounts and usually are a problem to the industry. Therefore, in this article we review the production of microbial pigments using agro-industrial residues during the current decade (2010–2020), considering both submerged and solid state fermentations, wild-type and genetically modified microorganisms, laboratorial to large-scale bioprocesses, and other possible biological activities related to these pigments.

Mechanical Cell Disruption Technologies for the Extraction of Dyes and Pigments from Microorganisms: A Review

The production of pigments using single cell microorganisms is gaining traction as a sustainable alternative to conventional syntheses, which rely, in no negligible proportions, on petrochemicals. In addition to depending on petroleum, these syntheses involved the use of toxic organic solvents, which may be inadequately disposed of across a range of industries, thus compounding the deleterious effects of fossil fuel exploitation. Literature suggests that notable research efforts in the area of sustainable pigment production using single cell microorganisms are focused on the production of pigments coveted for their interesting qualities, which transcend their mere capacity to dye various fabrics both natural and synthetic. As interest in sustainable pigment biosynthesis grows, the need to devise effective and efficient cell disruption processes becomes more pressing given that the viability of pigment biosynthesis is not only dependent on microorganisms’ yield in terms of production, but also on researchers’ ability to recover them. This review chiefly reports findings as to mechanical cell disruption methods, used individually or in various combinations, and their aptitude to recover biosynthetic pigments.

Carotenoids and Some Other Pigments from Fungi and Yeasts

Carotenoids are an essential group of compounds that may be obtained by microbiological synthesis. They are instrumental in various areas of industry, medicine, agriculture, and ecology. The increase of carotenoids' demand at the global market is now essential. At the moment, the production of natural carotenoids is more expensive than obtaining their synthetic forms, but several new approaches/directions on how to decrease this difference were developed during the last decades. This review briefly describes the information accumulated until now about the beneficial effects of carotenoids on human health protection, their possible application in the treatments of various diseases, and their use in the food and feed industry. This review also describes some issues that are linked with biotechnological production of fungal and yeasts carotenoids, as well as new approaches/directions to make their biotechnological production more efficient.

Evaluation of the process conditions for the production of microbial carotenoids by the recently isolated Rhodotorula mucilaginosa URM 7409

Abstract This study aimed to improve the physical and nutritional process conditions for the production of carotenoids by the newly isolated Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, a red basidiomycete yeast. The carotenoid bioproduction was improved using an experimental design technique, changing the process characteristics of agitation (130 rpm to 230 rpm) and temperature (25 °C to 35 °C) using seven experiments, followed by a 25-1 fractional design to determine the relevant factors that constitute the culture medium (glucose, malt extract, yeast extract, peptone and initial pH). A complete second order experimental design was then carried out to optimize the composition of the culture medium, the variables being yeast extract (0.5 to 3.5 g/L), peptone (1 to 5 g/L) and the initial pH (5.5 to 7.5), with 17 experiments. The maximum carotenoid production was 4164.45 μg/L (252.99 μg/g), obtained in 144 h in YM (yeast malt) medium with 30 g/L glucose, 10 g/L malt extract, 2 g/L yeast extract, 3 g/L peptone, an initial pH 6, 130 rpm and 25 °C, demonstrating the potential of this yeast as a source of bio-pigments. In this work, the nitrogen sources were the factors that most influenced the intracellular accumulation of carotenoids. The yeast R. mucilaginosa presented high production at a bench level and may be promising for commercial production.

Different cell disruption methods for obtaining carotenoids by Sporodiobolus pararoseus and Rhodothorula mucilaginosa

Since carotenoids are synthesized inside the cell, it is desirable to find an efficient method to extract carotegenic pigments. This study aimed at comparing the effectiveness of different chemical and mechanical techniques to disrupt the cell wall of Sporidiobolus pararoseus and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa yeasts isolated from environmental samples. Among the techniques under study, the ultrasonic bath and the abrasion with glass beads yielded the most promising results for S. pararoseus (84.8 ± 2.3 and 76.9 ± 2.1 μg/g, respectively). The ultrasonic bath yielded the highest specific concentration of carotenoids for R. mucilaginosa (193.5 ± 25.8 μg/g), while the biomass freezing process improved neither the extractability nor the specific concentration of carotenoids. Lyophilization increased the specific concentrations of carotenoids from S. pararoseus and R. mucilaginosa by 20 and 13.7%, respectively, while the freezing process did not significantly affect (p > 0.05) the recovery of carotenoids from both yeasts; thus, it may be eliminated from the process.