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Cited by 21Microbial Metabolic Engineering and BioproductionAlgal biology and biofuel productionLipid metabolism and biosynthesis

Coculturing of Mucor plumbeus and Bacillus subtilis bacterium as an efficient fermentation strategy to enhance fungal lipid and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) production

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Mohamed, Hassan, Awad, Mohamed F., Shah, Aabid Manzoor, Sadaqat, Beenish, Nazir, Yusuf, Naz, Tahira, Yang, Wu, Song, Yuanda·2022·Scientific Reports
DOI 10.1038/s41598-022-17442-2PMC PMC9338991
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Abstract

This study aimed to improve lipid and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) production of an oleaginous fungus, Mucor plumbeus, through coculturing with Bacillus subtilis bacteria, optimising the environmental and nutritional culture conditions, and scaling them for batch fermentation. The maximum levels of biomass, lipid, fatty acid, and GLA in a 5 L bioreactor containing cellobiose and ammonium sulfate as the optimal carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively, achieved during the coculturing processes were 14.5 ± 0.4 g/L, 41.5 ± 1.3, 24 ± 0.8, and 20 ± 0.5%, respectively. This strategy uses cellobiose in place of glucose, decreasing production costs. The nutritional and abiotic factor results suggest that the highest production efficiency is achieved at 6.5 pH, 30 °C temperature, 10% (v/v) inoculum composition, 200 rpm agitation speed, and a 5-day incubation period. Interestingly, the GLA concentration of cocultures (20.0 ± 0.5%) was twofold higher than that of monocultures (8.27 ± 0.11%). More importantly, the GC chromatograms of cocultures indicated the presence of one additional peak corresponding to decanoic acid (5.32 ± 0.20%) that is absent in monocultures, indicating activation of silent gene clusters via cocultivation with bacteria. This study is the first to show that coculturing of Mucor plumbeus with Bacillus subtilis is a promising strategy with industrialisation potential for the production of GLA-rich microbial lipids and prospective biosynthesis of new products.

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  • Previous studies suggest that optimal temperature and agitation ranges for B. subtilis strains are 30°C-37°C and 200-250 rpm, respectively.

    “Previous studies on B. subtilis strains suggest that their optimal temperature and agitation ranges are 30°C-37°C and 200-250 rpm, respectively [34, 39 ,40].”

    From Optimization of Bacillus subtilis PW12 biomass production using RSM: a preliminary study towards single-cell protein production for aquaculture (2024) · cites this paper as [39]

    The Results section ('Influence of environmental factors during coculturing'; page unavailable) reports the greatest yields at 30–35°C for biomass and at 200–220 rpm or 220 rpm for the measured products. Those findings concern M. plumbeus–B. subtilis cocultures, not optimal conditions for B. subtilis strains generally, and do not establish the claimed upper bounds of 37°C and 250 rpm. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Mohamed, H., Awad, M. F., Shah, A. M., Sadaqat, B., Nazir, Y., Naz, T., Yang, W., & Song, Y.
Affiliations
  • Shandong University of Technology (CN)
  • Taif University (SA)
Corresponding author
  • Mohamed, Hassan
  • Song, Yuanda
ORCID
Venue
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2022-07-30
Volume
12
Issue
1
Pages
13111-13111
ISSN
2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41598-022-17442-2
PMC
PMC9338991
OpenAlex
W4288748793
Cited by
21
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3
FWCI
1.22
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972851, 31670064)
  • TaiShan Industrial Experts Programme (20160101)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Lipid metabolism and biosynthesis
Keywords
Mucor plumbeus, Bacillus subtilis, gamma-linolenic acid, microbial lipid production, oleaginous fungi, capric acid, silent gene clusters, ammonium sulfate nitrogen source, fermentation optimization, bioreactor scale-up
MeSH terms
Bacillus, Bacillus subtilis, Cellobiose, Fermentation, Mucor, Prospective Studies, gamma-Linolenic Acid, Coculture Techniques

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