Reserch and Development of Cultivation Strategies for Biotechnological Mevalonic Acid Producion by Saccharomyces fibuligera

GONZALEZ, CLAUDIO; RUBISTEIN, LAURA; LEDESMA, PABLO; POLTI, MARTA ALEJANDRA; FARIÑA, JULIA; CASTELLANOS, LUCÍA

Washington

Congreso; 100th General Meeting - American Society for Microbiology; 2000

American Society for Microbiology

Mevalonic acid (MVA) is an important intermediate in the synthesis of various isoprenoids such as cholesterol. It is used as a precursor for fat soluble vitamins, pyrethroid pesticides, ubiquinone, dolichol and carotenoids production. The availability of natural MVA is scarce and therefore, synthetic racemates have been employed in conventional studies until present. We have focuse our work on the microbiological MVA production for its posterior use as a promoter for astazanthin biosynthesis in the hyperproducing mutant yeast Phaffia rhodozyma PAC-ID. Previous reports indicate tha MVA production might be faced by the cultivation of the yeast Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, thought depending on the selected strain, yields are not alqays high enough for is application at fermenter sacal and a critical evaluation must be carried out. The selected medium was the used for experiments at fermenter scale and much higher yields were achieved, with high extracellular MVA concentration and extracellular : intracellular MVA ratio. In addition, residual glucose was almost negligible, wich meant an optimum use of the carbon source as compared with previous reports (ca. 5% residual glucose).