Abstract
Avermectins produced by Streptomyces avermitilis are potent against a broad spectrum of nematode and arthropod parasites with low-level side effects on the host organisms. This study was designed to investigate a high-throughput screening strategy for the efficient identification of avermectin high-yield strains. The production protocol was miniaturized in 96 deep-well microplates. UV absorbance at 245 nm was used to monitor avermectin production. A good correlation between fermentation results in both 96 deep-well microplates and conventional Erlenmeyer flasks was observed. With this protocol, the production of avermectins was determined in less than 10 min for a full plate without compromising accuracy. The high-yield strain selected through this protocol was also tested in 360 m3 batch fermentation with 1.6-fold improved outcome. Thus, the development of this protocol is expected to accelerate the selection of superior avermectin-producing strains.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Arnold Demain and Elizabeth Ashforth for their critical reading of the manuscript and helpful discussions. This work was supported in part by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No 30700015), National 863 project (2006AA09Z402 and 2007AA09Z443), and Chinese Academy of Sciences Innovation Projects O62A131BB4, National Key Technology R&D Program 2007BAI26B02, the National Science & Technology Pillar Program (No. 200703295000-02), Important National Science & Technology Specific Projects (No. 2008ZX09401-05), Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2006A50103001). L.Z. was an awardee for Hundred Talents Program.
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Hong Gao, Mei Liu, and Xianlong Zhou contributed equally to this work.
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Gao, H., Liu, M., Zhou, X. et al. Identification of avermectin-high-producing strains by high-throughput screening methods. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 85, 1219–1225 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-009-2345-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-009-2345-5