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Pellet-dispersion strategy to simplify the seed cultivation of Aspergillus niger and optimize citric acid production

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Abstract

Citric acid (CA) as an extremely important platform compound has attracted intense attention due to wide applications and huge markets. Here, we proposed a novel method, using pellet inoculation to replace spores, and constructed the seed recycling cultivation process, effectively avoided the longtime (spore preparation 30 days) of seed culture (including spores germination 12 h) in the traditional batch-fermentation. On this basis, using pellet-dispersion strategy, the bottleneck caused by the mycelium structure was overcome, with the seed restoring high cell-viability with CA titer (11.0 g/L) even in the eighth batch compared to that in the control (4.6 g/L). The optimum morphology of these recycling cultured seeds for CA production was dispersed pattern rather than pellets. And the CA production was 130.5 g/L on average in 5 L five-conjoined-fermenters recycling eight batches, especially increasing 3.1 g/L compared with the control. To our knowledge, this is the first that reported the application of these strategies in effective production of CA. Our fermentation strategies not only significantly enhanced CA productivity, but also severed as a promising stepping-stone for other fermentations dominated with the filamentous fungi.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program, 2015AA020302) and the Cooperation Project of Jiangsu Province among Industries, Universities and Institutes (BY2015019-13) and the Jiangsu Guoxin-Union Engergy Co. Ltd., China. We are thankful for their supports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory for Cereal Fermentation Technology, Wuxi, 214122, China

    Baoshi Wang, Jian Chen, Hua Li, Youran Li & Guiyang Shi

  2. School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China

    Baoshi Wang, Youran Li & Guiyang Shi

  3. Jiangsu Guoxin Union Energy Co., Ltd., Wuxi, 214203, China

    Baoshi Wang & Fuxin Sun

Authors
  1. Baoshi Wang
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  2. Jian Chen
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  3. Hua Li
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  4. Fuxin Sun
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  5. Youran Li
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  6. Guiyang Shi
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Correspondence to Guiyang Shi.

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Wang, B., Chen, J., Li, H. et al. Pellet-dispersion strategy to simplify the seed cultivation of Aspergillus niger and optimize citric acid production. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 40, 45–53 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-016-1673-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-016-1673-y

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