Isolation and identification of a photosynthetic bacterium containing a high content of coenzyme Q10

Abstract

To develop a potent strain for the production of coenzyme Q10, a photosynthetic bacterium was isolated from silt of the Nakdong River in Korea. Using 16S-rDNA sequence analysis, the isolated strain was identified as Rhodobacter sphaeroides. A stable improvement in its CoQ10 content was achieved by chemical mutation, upon which the content of CoQ10 (2.94 mg/g dry cell) was increased by approximately 1.9-fold, comparable to that of R. sphaeroides reported in other studies. The isolate is a potentially valuable microorganism for mass production of CoQ10, and may provide an appropriate model for further study of economical mass production. © The Korean Fisheries Society.