Abstract
The effect of aeration on the performance of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) production by Schizochytrium sp. was investigated in a 1,500-L bioreactor using fed-batch fermentation. Six parameters, including specific growth rate, specific glucose consumption rate, specific lipid accumulation rate, cell yield coefficient, lipid yield coefficient, and DHA yield coefficient, were used to understand the relationship between aeration and the fermentation characteristics. Based on the information obtained from the parameters, a stepwise aeration control strategy was proposed. The aeration rate was controlled at 0.4 volume of air per volume of liquid per minute (vvm) for the first 24 h, then shifted to 0.6 vvm until 96 h, and then switched back to 0.4 vvm until the end of the fermentation. High cell density (71 g/L), high lipid content (35.75 g/L), and high DHA percentage (48.95%) were achieved by using this strategy, and DHA productivity reached 119 mg/L h, which was 11.21% over the best results obtained by constant aeration rate.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 20936002), the National Basic Research Program of China (nos. 2007CB707805 and 2009CB724700), the Scientific Research Project for Post-graduate in Jiangsu Province (no. CX07s_032z), the Fifth of Six Projects Sponsoring Talent Summits of Jiangsu Province (2008), and the College Industrialization Project of Jiangsu Province (2009). We also wish to thank both managerial and technical staff of Jiangsu TianKai Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Nanjing, P. R. China) for providing the manufacturing facilities and technical assistance. We also thank Dr. Mingjie Jin from Michigan State University and Mr. Samuel St-Pierre for their language assistance with this paper.
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Ren, LJ., Ji, XJ., Huang, H. et al. Development of a stepwise aeration control strategy for efficient docosahexaenoic acid production by Schizochytrium sp.. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 87, 1649–1656 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2639-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2639-7