Paecilomyces fumosoroseus blastospore production using liquid culture in a bioreactor

Abstract

There are many advantages to using liquid cultures for the production of blastospores. These include mainly the processes of scale up which are relatively easy, as well as the control of parameters such as
temperature, aeration and pH. In this work, we evaluated the production of Paecilomyces fumosoroseus blastospores using a low-cost liquid culture medium in a fermenter in comparison to a medium
commonly used for this purpose, with regard to yield and viability of blastospores. The two media contained the same concentration of glucose but differed in N source (M1 containing casamino acids
and M2 provided with collagen peptone and yeast extract). Starting with an inoculum of 1x106 blastospores/ml, M2 medium produced 2x1010 blastospores/ml after incubation for 72 h at 520 rev/min
agitation and 1 v/v/m (volume air/volume liquid.min) aeration, while only 2.4 x 108/ml were produced with M1. In addition, the microorganisms in medium M1 grew more slowly during log phase and reached an earlier plateau at 36 h fermentation. The medium containing collagen peptone and yeast extract is an excellent alternative for the production of P. fumosoroseus blastospores, providing lower cost, higher yield and shorter propagation time, but formulation does need to be improved.