Enhancement of Pyruvate Production by Torulopsis glabrata : through Supplement of Oxaloacetate as Carbon Source

The capability of utilizing a TCA cycle intermediates as the sole carbon source by the multi-vitamin auxotrophic yeast Torulopsis glabrata CCTCC M202019 was demonstrated with plate count method. It is indicated that T. glabrata could grew on a medium with one of the TCA cycle intermediates as the sole carbon source, but more colonies were observed when glucose, acetate and one of the TCA cycle intermediates coexisted in the medium. Among the intermediates of the TCA cycle examined in this study, cell growth was improved by supplementing oxaloacetate. Further investigation showed that the presence of acetate was necessary when oxaloacetate was supplemented. By supplementing with 10 g/L of oxaloacetate in pyruvate batch fermentation, dry cell weight increased from 11.8 g/L to 13.6 g/L, and pyruvate productivity was enhanced from $0.96\;gL^{-1}h^{-1}\;to\;1.19 gL^{-1}h^{-1}$ after cultivation of 56 h. The yield of pyruvate to glucose was also improved from 0.63 g/g to 0.66 g/g. These results indicate that under vitamins limitation, the productivity and yield of pyruvate could be enhanced via an increase of cell growth by the supplementation of oxaloacetate.