Continuous cellulase production by cell-holding culture

✍ Scribed by Masayuki Taniguchi; Tsuyoshi Kato; Ryuichi Matsuno; Tadashi Kamikubo

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 648 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1432-0614
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00501512

✦ Synopsis

A new apparatus for continuous cultivation, fitted with an internal separator of fungal cells, is described. The withdrawal of cell-free medium is accomplished by filtration of the culture broth through nylon mesh. With this apparatus, cell-holding culture of Trichoderma reesei QM 9414 for continuous cellulase production was carried out using cellobiose as the carbon source. The cell-holding culture, with no loss of the mycelium during continuous filtration, makes it possible to retain a high density of the mycelium while removing metabolic products. Continuous operation of the cell-holding culture with constant or decreasing feeding of fresh medium resulted in a dramatic increase in cellulase and fl-glucosidase activities. The cellulase activity produced was elevated to levels comparable with or more than that in batch culture with cellulose as the carbon source, and the /3-glucosidase activities obtained were three to four times as high as those in batch culture with cellobiose. The proper amount of cellobiose that should be continuously supplied to induce cellulase concurrently with lowering of the repressive effect of catabolite was estimated to be 8-12mg/h/g of mycelia during both active and stationary phases.