Abstract
The feast-to-famine ratio (F/F) represents the extent of selective pressure during polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) culture selection. This study evaluated the effects of F/F on a new PHA production system by an enriched culture with valerate-dominant sludge hydrolysate and selected the optimal F/F. After the original F/F 1/3 was modified to 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/5, F/F did not affect their lengths of feast phase, but affected their biomass growth behaviors during the famine phase and PHA-producing abilities. The optimal F/F was 1/2, and compared with 1/3, it increased the maximal PHA content and the fraction of 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) and 3-hydroxy-2-methylvalerate (3H2MV) monomers, with higher productivity and better polymer properties. Although F/F 1/2 impaired the advantage of the dominant genus Delftia, it improved the PHA production rate while decreased biomass growth rate, meanwhile enhancing the utilization and conversion of valerate. These findings indicate that in contrast to previous studies using acetate-dominant substrate for PHA production, the new system fed by valerate-dominant substrate can adopt a higher F/F.
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Acknowledgements
The authors kindly thank Jian Ma and Chongyang Wang for their valuable help in the periodical sludge sampling.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Key Research Project on Water Environment Pollution Control in China (no. 2012ZX07313-001) and the Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program (no. 20101081834, 20121087922).
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Hao, J., Wang, H. & Wang, X. Selecting optimal feast-to-famine ratio for a new polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production system fed by valerate-dominant sludge hydrolysate. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 102, 3133–3143 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-8799-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-8799-6