3 Biotech

, 8:71 | Cite as

Production of gellan gum, an exopolysaccharide, from biodiesel-derived waste glycerol by Sphingomonas spp.

  • Kerisha Raghunandan
  • Ashwani Kumar
  • Santhosh Kumar
  • Kugenthiren Permaul
  • Suren Singh
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

In the present study, biodiesel-derived waste glycerol (WG) was used for the isolation and production of gellan, an exopolysaccharide, on media containing WG as the main carbon source. Two bacterial isolates showed gellan producing potential which were identified as Sphingomonas pseudosanguinis (Accession No. GI:724472387) and Sphingomonas yabuuchiae (GI:724472388) by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. To maximize gellan production by S. pseudosanguinis and S. yabuuchiae, media optimization was performed at different pHs and glycerol concentrations. Morphological observations through microscopic images showed the production of gellan from these isolates. Simple linear regression showed better utilization of WG by S. pseudosanguinis than S. yabuuchiae at pH 6 and pH 7. Though, both the strains showed reverse trend at pH 8. Both the strains were able to produce high amounts of gellan gum (51.6 and 52.6 g/l, respectively) using WG (80 g/l) as the sole carbon source, in a minimal medium. This is the first report on the efficient degradation of WG and low-cost production of gellan. Owing to these characteristics, S. pseudosanguinis and S. yabuuchiae demonstrate great potential for use in the commercial production of gellan and in the bioremediation of WG.

Keywords

Waste glycerol Biodegradation 16S rRNA Exopolysaccharides Gellan gum 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgements

KR and SS would like to acknowledge National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa, and the Durban University of Technology, South Africa, for financial support for this research.

Author contributions statement

KR and AK contributed equally and have made substantial contribution to this manuscript. SKP reviewed the manuscript. SS and KP critically edited and formatted the manuscript.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

References

  1. Alves VD, Ferreira AR, Costa N, Freitas F, Reis MA, Coelhoso IM (2011) Characterization of biodegradable films from the extracellular polysaccharide produced by Pseudomonas oleovorans grown on glycerol by product. Carbohydr Polym 83:1582–1590.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2010.10.010 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Arockiasamy S, Banik RM (2008) Optimization of gellan gum production by Sphingomonas paucimobilis ATCC 31461 with nonionic surfactants using central composite design. J Biosci Bioeng 105:204–210.  https://doi.org/10.1263/jbb.105.204 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Arora K, Sharma S, Krishna SBN, Adam JK, Kumar A (2017) Non-edible oil cakes as a novel substrate for DPA production and augmenting biocontrol activity of Paecilomyces variotii. Front Microbiol 8:1–12.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00753
  4. Abd-El-Aal S, Attallah A (2007) Induction of highly gellan gum productive Sphingomonas paucimobilis. Research J Agri Biol Sci 3(6):554–557Google Scholar
  5. Bajaj IB, Saudagar PS, Singhal RS, Pandey A (2006) Statistical approach to optimization of fermentative production of gellan gum from Sphingomonas paucimobilis ATCC 31461. J Biosci Bioeng 102:150–156.  https://doi.org/10.1263/jbb.102.150 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Bajaj IB, Survase SA, Saudagar PS, Singhal RS (2007) Gellan gum: fermentative production, downstream processing and applications. Food Technol Biotechnol 45:341–354Google Scholar
  7. Banerjee S, Ravi R, Bhattacharya S (2013) Textural characterisation of gellan and agar based fabricated gels with carrot juice. LWT Food Sci Technol 53:255–261.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2013.02.011 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Banik RM, Santhiagu A, Upadhyay SN (2007) Optimization of nutrients for gellan gum production by Sphingomonas paucimobilis ATCC-31461 in molasses based medium using response surface methodology. Bioresour Technol 98:792–797.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2006.03.012 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Chaturvedi S, Kumar A, Singh B, Nain L, Joshi M, Satya S (2013) Bioaugmented composting of Jatropha de-oiled cake and vegetable waste under aerobic and partial anaerobic conditions. J Basic Microbiol 53:327–335.  https://doi.org/10.1002/jobm.201100634 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Chen X, Zhou L, Tian K, Kumar A, Singh S, Prior BA, Wang Z  (2013) Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli: a sustainable industrial platform for bio-based chemical production. Biotechnol Adv 31:1200–1223.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2013.02.009 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Fialho AM, Martins LO, Donval ML, Leitão JH, Ridout MJ, Jay AJ, Morris VJ, Sá-Correia I (1999) Structures and properties of gellan polymers produced by Sphingomonas paucimobilis ATCC 31461 from lactose compared with those produced from glucose and from cheese whey. Appl Environ Microbiol 65:2485–2491Google Scholar
  12. Fialho AM, Moreira LM, Granja AT, Popescu AO, Hoffmann K, Sá-Correia I (2008) Occurrence, production, and applications of gellan: current state and perspectives. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 79:889–900CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Fredrickson JK, Balkwill DL, Drake GR, Romine MF, Ringelberg DB, White DC (1995) Aromatic-degrading Sphingomonas isolates from the deep subsurface. Appl Environ Microbiol 61:1917–1922Google Scholar
  14. Freitas F, Alves VD, Pais J, Costa N, Oliveira C, Mafra L, Hilliou L, Oliveira R, Reis MA (2009) Characterization of an extracellular polysaccharide produced by a Pseudomonas strain grown on glycerol. Bioresour Technol 100:859–865.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2008.07.002 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Freitas F, Alves VD, Pais J, Carvalheira M, Costa N, Oliveira R, Reis MA  (2010) Production of a new exopolysaccharide (EPS) by Pseudomonas oleovorans NRRL B-14682 grown on glycerol. Process Biochem 45:297–305.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procbio.2009.09.020 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Freitas F, Alves VD, Reis MAM (2011) Advances in bacterial exopolysaccharides: from production to biotechnological applications. Trends Biotechnol 29:388–398CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Govender A, Pillay B (2011) Biochemical activities of 1, 2-dichloroethane (DCA) degrading bacteria. African J Biotechnol 10:11574–11581.  https://doi.org/10.5897/ajb10.1685
  18. Gupta A, Kumar A, Sharma S, Vijay VK (2013) Comparative evaluation of raw and detoxified mahua seed cake for biogas production. Appl Energy 102:1514–1521CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Kalia VC, Prakash J, Koul S (2016) Biorefinery for Glycerol Rich Biodiesel Industry Waste. Indian J. Microbiol. 56:113–125CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Kimura M (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. J Mol Evol 16:111–120.  https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01731581 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Kothari R, Pandey A, Ahmad S, Kumar A (2017) Microalgal cultivation for value-added products: a critical enviro-economical assessment. 3 Biotech 7(4):243.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-017-0812-8 Google Scholar
  22. Kumar A, Sharma S (2008) An evaluation of multipurpose oil seed crop for industrial uses (Jatropha curcas L.): a review. Ind Crops Prod 28:1–10.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2008.01.001 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Kumar A, Sharma S (2011) Potential non-edible oil resources as biodiesel feedstock: an Indian perspective. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 15:1791–1800.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2010.11.020 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Kumar S, Tamura K, Nei M (2004) MEGA3: integrated software for Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis and sequence alignment. Brief Bioinform 5:150–163.  https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/5.2.150 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Kumar A, Sharma S, Mishra S (2009) Effect of alkalinity on growth performance of Jatropha curcas inoculated with PGPR and AM fungi. J Phytology 1:177–184Google Scholar
  26. Kumar A, Kumar K, Kaushik N, Sharma S, Mishra S (2010a) Renewable energy in India: current status and future potentials. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 14:2434–2442.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2010.04.003 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Kumar A, Sharma S, Mishra S (2010b) Influence of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and salinity on seedling growth, solute accumulation, and mycorrhizal dependency of Jatropha curcas L. J Plant Growth Regul 29:297–306.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-009-9136-1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Letunic I, Bork P (2016) Interactive tree of life (iTOL) v3 : an online tool for the display and annotation of phylogenetic and other trees. Nucleic Acid Research 44:242–245.  https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw290
  29. Maru BT, Bielen AAM, Kengen SWM, Constantí M, & Medina F (2012) Biohydrogen production from glycerol using Thermotoga spp. Energy Procedia 29:300–307Google Scholar
  30. Murillo-Martínez MM, Tecante A (2014) Preparation of the sodium salt of high acyl gellan and characterization of its structure, thermal and rheological behaviors. Carbohydr Polym 108:313–320.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2014.02.056 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Nampoothiri KM, Singhania RR, Sabarinath C, Pandey A (2003) Fermentative production of gellan using Sphingomonas paucimobilis. Process Biochem 38:1513–1519CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Nimje VR, Chen CY, Chen CC, Chen HR, Tseng MJ, Jean JS, Chang YF (2011) Glycerol degradation in single-chamber microbial fuel cells. Bioresource Technol 102(3):2629–2634Google Scholar
  33. Osmałek T, Froelich A, Tasarek S (2014) Application of gellan gum in pharmacy and medicine. Int J Pharm 466:328–340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Pollock TJ (1993) Gellan-related polysaccharides and the genus Sphingomonas. J Gen Microbiol 139:1939–1945CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Prajapati VD, Jani GK, Zala BS, Khutliwala TA (2013) An insight into the emerging exopolysaccharide gellan gum as a novel polymer. Carbohydr Polym 93:670–678CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Raghunandan K, McHunu S, Kumar A et al (2014) Biodegradation of glycerol using bacterial isolates from soil under aerobic conditions. J Environ Sci Health A Toxicol Hazard Subset Environ Eng 49:85–92.  https://doi.org/10.1080/10934529.2013.824733 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Schmidt S, Wittich RM, Erdmann D et al (1992) Biodegradation of diphenyl ether and its monohalogenated derivatives by Sphingomonas sp. strain SS3. Appl Environ Microbiol 58:2744–2750Google Scholar
  38. Singh NB, Kumar A, Rai S (2014) Potential production of bioenergy from biomass in an Indian perspective. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 39:65–78.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.110 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Tao XQ, Lu GN, Dang Z et al (2007) A phenanthrene-degrading strain Sphingomonas sp. GY2B isolated from contaminated soils. Process Biochem 42:401–408.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procbio.2006.09.018 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Vasudevan P, Sharma S, Kumar A (2005) Liquid fuel from biomass: an overview. J Sci Ind Res (India) 64:822–831Google Scholar
  41. Wang X, Xu P, Yuan Y, Liu C, Zhang D, Yang Z, Yang C, Ma C (2006) Modeling for gellan gum production by Sphingomonas paucimobilis ATCC 31461 in a simplified medium. Appl Environ Microbiol 72:3367–3374.  https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.72.5.3367-3374.2006 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Zhang J, Dong YC, Fan LL et al (2015) Optimization of culture medium compositions for gellan gum production by a halobacterium Sphingomonas paucimobilis. Carbohydr Polym 115:694–700.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2014.09.029 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  43. Zhao HP, Wang L, Ren JR, Li Z, Li M, Gao HW (2008) Isolation and characterization of phenanthrene-degrading strains Sphingomonas sp. ZP1 and Tistrella sp. ZP5. J Hazard Mater 152:1293–1300.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2007.08.008 CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology, Faculty of Applied SciencesDurban University of TechnologyDurbanSouth Africa
  2. 2.Metagenomics and Secretomics Research Laboratory, Department of BotanyDr. Harisingh Gour University (Central University)SagarIndia

Personalised recommendations