Use of grape pomaces to produce biomass of a Komagataella pastoris strain expressing a bovine chymosin activity

Abstract

The use of agroindustrial wastes not only decreases bioprocesses and disposal costs but also contributes to the upgrading of the residues. An active recombinant methanol-inducible bovine chymosin has been expressed in our laboratory in the yeast Komagataella pastoris, and grape pomace extracts (GRE) were proposed as a convenient C-energy source for the biomass production of the genetically engineered strain. Carbon and nitrogen sources, growth factors, and initial pH conditions were selected by classical methodology; thereafter, growth conditions optimization was performed using statistical designed experiments (DoEs). In the presence of (in g·L−1) 67.0 monosaccharides (glucose and fructose) from GRE, 5.0 (NH4)2SO4, and 10.0 sugar cane molasses (CMz), a yield of 20.0 g·L−1 cell dry weight (CDW) was obtained aerobically after 60 h incubation at 28°C and pH 4.0. Applying a fed-batch strategy with methanol:sorbitol as the enzyme inducers, a chymosin production of 8.53 International Milk Clotting Units (IMCU) per mg protein was obtained in the supernatant. The results presented show that through a statistical design, a simple, cheap, and easy to prepare culture medium could be developed using two agroindustrial derivatives (GRE and CMz) to obtain a higher value added product.