• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.225-231
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• 2005

The characteristics of cell growth and medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (MCL-PHA) biosynthesis of Pseudomonas chlororaphis HS21 were investigated using plant oils as the carbon substrate. The organism was efficiently capable of utilizing plant oils, such as palm oil, corn oil, and sunflower oil, as the sole carbon source for growth and MCL-PHA production. When palm oil (5 g/L) was used as the carbon source, the cell growth and MCL-PHA accumulation of this organism occurred simultaneously, and a high dry cell weight (2.4 g/L) and MCL-PHA ($40.2\;mol{\%}$ of dry cell weight) was achieved after 30 hr of batch-fermentation. The repeating unit in the MCL-PHA produced from palm oil composed of 3-hydroxyhexanoate ($7.0\;mol{\%}$), 3-hydroxyoctanoate ($45.3\;mol{\%}$), 3-hydroxydecanoate ($39.0\;mol{\%}$), 3-hydroxydodecanoate ($6.8\;mol{\%}$), and 3-hydroxytetradecanoate ($1.9\;mol{\%}$), as determined by GC/MS. Even though glucose was a carbon substrate that support cell growth but not PHA production, the conversion rate of palm oil to PHA was significantly increased when glucose was fed as a cosubstrate, suggesting that bioconversion of some functionalized carbon substrates to related polymers in P chlororaphis HS21 could be enhanced by the co-feed of good carbon substrates for cell growth. In addition, the change of compositions of repeating units in MCL-PHAs synthesized from the plant oils was markedly affected by the supplementation of acrylic acid, an inhibitor of fatty acid ${\beta}-oxidation$. The addition of acrylic acid resulted in the increase of longer chain-length repeating units, such as 3-hydroxydodecanoate and 3-hydroxytetradecanoate, in the MCL-PHAs produced. Particularly, MCI-PHAs containing high amounts of unsaturated repeating units could be produced when sunflower oil and corn oil were used as the carbon substrate. These results suggested that the alteration of PHA synthesis pathway by acrylic acid addition can offer the opportunity to design new functional MCL-PHAs and other unusual polyesters that have unique physico-chemical properties.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.970-973
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• 1996

Effect of cell density on the xylitol production from xylose by Candida parapsilosis KFCC 10875 was investigated. The concentrated cells were obtained by centrifugation of culture broth. The xylitol production rate was maximum at the cell concentration of 20 g/l and the specific xylitol production rate decreased when the cell concentration was increased due to oxygen limitation. Effect of the initial concentration of xylose on the xylitol production was also examined using the concentrated cells of 20 g/l. The xylitol production rate, specific xylitol production rate, and xylitol yield from xylose were maximum at 170 g/l xylose. Above 170 g/l xylose, the xylitol production rate was remarkably decreased. The concentrated cells could also be obtained by adjusting the dissolved oxygen (DO) during fermentation. The rapid accumulation of cells up to 20 g/l was achieved by maintaining an increased level of DO during the exponential growth phase and then, for the efficient xylitol production, the DO was changed to a low level in the range of 0.7-1.5%. A fed-batch fermentation of xylose by adjusting the DO level was carried out in a fermentor and the final xylitol concentration of 140 g/l from xylose of 200 g/l could be obtained for 56 h fermentation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2014

In this study, the performances of PVA-encapsulation and non-encapsulation in a fed-batch bioreactor system were compared for biohydrogen production. Hydrogen production in the PVA-encapsulation bioreactor was not significantly different in comparison to the non-encapsulation bioreactor. However, the hydrogen gas in the encapsulation bioreactor could be stably produced when it was exposed to environmental difficulties such as pH impact by the accumulation of organic acids as fermentative metabolic products. Bacterial communities by DGGE analysis were differently shifted between the PVA-encapsulation and non-encapsulation bioreactors from the initial sludge. The community of hydrogen producing bacteria was stable during the experimental period in the PVA-encapsulation bioreactor compared to the non-encapsulation method. The absolute quantitation of the DNA copy number by a high-throughput droplet digital PCR system for six genera contributed to hydrogen production showing that the numbers of dominant bacteria existed at similar levels in the two bioreactors regardless of encapsulation. In both of two bioreactors, not only Clostridium and Enterobacter, which are known as anaerobic hydrogen producing bacteria, but also Firmicutes, Ruminococcus and Escherichia existed with $1{\times}10^5-1{\times}10^6$ copy numbers of ml-samples exhibiting rapid growth during the initial operation period.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.191-195
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• 1995

Production of a high viscosity exoploysaccharide, methylan, by Methylobacterium organophilum from methanol was carried out in fed-batch cultures and the rheological properties of methylan fermentation broth were studied. Bacterial biomass showed little influence on viscosity, but the accumulation of methylan caused the increase of viscosity. With proceeding fermention, the viscosity at the same concentration of methylan was significantly increased and methylan solution showed slightly higher pseudoplasticity. The composition changes of methylan were investigated at various fermentation times. Contents of total sugar, reducing sugar and methylan were decreased but contents of acids(pyruvic acid, uronic acid and acetic acid) were increased with the culture time. It was considered that the increased content of acids resulted in the increase of the hyrodynamic domain in the solution due to charge repulsion. Consequently, the solution viscosity increased in propotion to the acids contents of methylan. Cell growth and methylan production were severely decreased by the limitation of dissolved oxygen. However, the cellular activity for methylan production was almost constant regardless of the level of dissolved oxygen. As a result, the high speed of agitation increased the methylan production, the specific production rate of methylan, and the methylan yield of the cell.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.465-474
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• 1999

RNase activity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 7754 was investigated to obtain strains with high ribonucleic acid (RNA) content. The yeast strain contained two RNase activities; an acidic RNase with a optima of pH $3{\sim}4$ and an alkaline RNase with a optima pH 9. The acidic RNase activity was inhibited by $0.08\;M\;HgCl_{2}$ most drastically. The alkaline RNase activity was inhibited by 2.0 M NaCl or KCl, while enhanced by addition of $0.05\;M\;CaCl_{2},\;0.02\;M\;ZnSO_{4},\;or\;0.008\;M\;HgCl_{2}$. Various mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 7754 were isolated by ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) treatment or $\gamma$-ray/ultra violet irradiation. Among the mutants that were sensitive to high concentration of KCl which inhibits alkaline RNase, B24 was selected for high RNA content per culture volume. Growth characteristics of the mutant were comparable to those of the mother strain with optimum growth at pH $4.5{\sim}5.5$. The mutant accumulated higher content of RNA than the mother strain when glucose was used as the carbon source. However, both growth rate and total RNA content of the mutant were higher in molasses medium than in glucose medium. RNA content of the mutant increased rapidly during the early stage of growth, and then decreased gradually until the culture reached stationary phase by a fed-batch culture in a 5 L jar fermenter. Maximal cell harvest and the final RNA content using the mutant B24 were 69.6 g/L culture broth and 19.8 g/100 g of the dry cell while those using the mother strain were 68 g/L culture broth and 16.1 g/100 g of dry cell, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.1829-1836
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• 2013

This study is carried out to investigate the physicochemical characteristics, microbial population, and sensory characteristics during fermentation of Korean traditional rice wine with addition of glutinous rice. The fed-batch fermentation of rice was performed by Nuruk and yeast for 10 days at $28^{\circ}C$ in a water bath. The four fermentation batches included 0, 10, 15 and 20% of glutinous rice based on the total rice contents. The growth of total viable cells, lactic acid bacteria (LAB), and yeasts were similar among the four batches during the fermentation period. The population for total viable cells and LAB were increased for the first 3 days, and decreased slowly until 10 days. The number of yeast cells was rapidly decreased after day 6, when the alcohol content reached about 15% for all the fermentation batches. Physicochemical characteristics, such as pH, total acidity, and reducing sugars, were not different with the increase of additional glutinous rice contents. The ethanol production was higher in Korean traditional rice wine from non-glutinous rice (17.1%) than ones from glutinous rice (15.8~16.7%). For the sensory evaluations, Korean traditional rice wine with 15% glutinous rice was highly preferred due to the highest sweetness.