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High concentrations of biotechnologically produced astaxanthin by lowering pH in a Phaffia rhodozyma bioprocess

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Abstract

Astaxanthin additions to animal diets predominantly serve as colorization aid to satisfy consumer expectations and desire for a consistent product with familiar coloration, e.g. the characteristic pink colorization of the flesh of species being produced by aquaculture. The heterobasidiomycetous yeast Phaffia rhodozyma (Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous) can be used as natural feed source of astaxanthin. However, currently, the majority of astaxanthin used for the feed market is produced by chemical synthesis. We present a further step in direction of a competitive production of natural astaxanthin in an optimized bioprocess with non-genetically modified Phaffia rhodozyma. After medium optimization AXJ-20, a mutant strain of P. rhodozyma wild-type strain ATCC 96594, was able to grow to a cell dry weight concentration of over 114 g per kg of culture broth in a fed-batch process. In this bioprocess, where pH was lowered from 5.5 to 3.5 during the maturation phase, AXJ-20 produced the highest value reported for astaxanthin production with P. rhodozyma up to now: 0.7 g astaxanthin per kg of culture broth with a space-time-yield of 3.3 mg astaxanthin per kg of culture broth per hour. Lowering the pH during the bioprocess and increasing trace element and vitamin concentrations prevented loss of cell dry weight concentration in the maturation phase and proved to be critical for astaxanthin concentration and purity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DECHEMA Research Institute, Biochemical Engineering, Theodor-Heuss-Allee 25, 60486, Frankfurt, Germany

    Hendrik Schewe, Isabell Schmidt & Jens Schrader

  2. DSM Nutritional Products GmbH, Emil-Barell-Straße 3, 79639, Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany

    Andrea Kreutzer & Christian Schubert

Authors
  1. Hendrik Schewe
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  2. Andrea Kreutzer
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  3. Isabell Schmidt
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Correspondence to Hendrik Schewe.

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Schewe, H., Kreutzer, A., Schmidt, I. et al. High concentrations of biotechnologically produced astaxanthin by lowering pH in a Phaffia rhodozyma bioprocess. Biotechnol Bioproc E 22, 319–326 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12257-016-0349-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12257-016-0349-4

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