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Pullulan production by tropical isolates of Aureobasidium pullulans

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Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Tropical isolates of Aureobasidium pullulans previously isolated from distinct habitats in Thailand were characterized for their capacities to produce the valuable polysaccharide, pullulan. A. pullulans strain NRM2, the so-called “color variant” strain, was the best producer, yielding 25.1 g pullulan l−1 after 7 days in sucrose medium with peptone as the nitrogen source. Pullulan from strain NRM2 was less pigmented than those from the other strains and was remarkably pure after a simple ethanol precipitation. The molecular weight of pullulan from all cultures dramatically decreased after 3 days growth, as analyzed by high performance size exclusion chromatography. Alpha-amylase with apparent activity against pullulan was expressed constitutively in sucrose-grown cultures and induced in starch-grown cultures. When the alpha-amylase inhibitor acarbose was added to the culture medium, pullulan of slightly higher molecular weight was obtained from late cultures, supporting the notion that alpha-amylase plays a role in the reduction of the molecular weight of pullulan during the production phase.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully thank the Royal Golden Jubilee PhD program (Grant number 4.S.CU/42 Q.1) of the Thailand Research Fund, Ratchadaphiseksomphot Endowment Fund and Eveleigh-Fenton Fund (Rutgers University) for the financial support. Expert technical contributions were made by Melinda Nunnally and James Nicholson of the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, ARS, USDA, Peoria, IL.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Biomass Utilization Research Unit, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand

    Sehanat Prasongsuk & Hunsa Punnapayak

  2. National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, ARS, USDA, Peoria, IL, USA

    Mark A. Berhow, Christopher A. Dunlap, David Weisleder & Timothy D. Leathers

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology , Cook College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Douglas E. Eveleigh

Authors
  1. Sehanat Prasongsuk
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  2. Mark A. Berhow
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  3. Christopher A. Dunlap
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  4. David Weisleder
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  5. Timothy D. Leathers
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  6. Douglas E. Eveleigh
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  7. Hunsa Punnapayak
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Correspondence to Hunsa Punnapayak.

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Names are necessary to report factually on available data; however, the USDA neither guarantees nor warrants the standard of the product, and the use of the name by the USDA implies no approval of the product to the exclusion of others that may also be suitable.

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Prasongsuk, S., Berhow, M.A., Dunlap, C.A. et al. Pullulan production by tropical isolates of Aureobasidium pullulans . J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 34, 55–61 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-006-0163-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-006-0163-7

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