Enhanced production of androst-1,4-diene- 3,17-dione by Mycobacterium neoaurum JC- 12 using three-stage fermentation strategy

Abstract

To improve the androst-1,4-diene-3,17-dione (ADD) production from phytosterol by Mycobacterium neoaurumJC-12, fructose was firstly found favorable as the initial carbon source to increase the biomass and eliminate the lag phase ofM. neoaurum JC-12 in the phytosterol transformation process. Based on this phenomenon, two-stage fermentation by using fructose as the initial carbon source and feeding glucose tomaintain strain metabolism was designed. By applying this strategy, the fermentation duration was decreased from 168 h to 120 h with the ADD productivity increased from 0.071 g/(L·h) to 0.108 g/(L·h). Further, threestage fermentation by adding phytosterol to improve ADD production at the end of the twostage fermentation was carried out and the final ADD production reached 18.6 g/L, which is the highest reported ADD production using phytosterol as substrate. Thus, this strategy provides a possible way in enhancing the ADD production in pharmaceutical industry. Copyright: