Batch and continuous culture kinetics for production of carotenoids by beta-ionone-resistant mutant of Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous.

A beta-ionone-resistant mutant strain isolated from the red yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous KCTC 7704 was used for batch and continuous fermentation kinetic studies with glucose media in a 2.5-1 jar fermentor at 22 degrees C and pH 4.5. The kinetic pattern of growth and carotenoid concentration in the batch fermentations exhibited a so-called mixed-growth-associated product formation, possibly due to the fact that the content of intracellular carotenoids depends on the degree of physical maturation toward adulthood. To determine the maximum specific growth rate constant (microm) and Monod constant (k(s)) for the mutant, glucose-limited continuous culture studies were performed at different dilution rates within a range of 0.02-0.10 h(-1). A reciprocal plot of the steady-state data (viz., reciprocal of glucose concentration versus residence time) obtained from continuous culture experiments was used to estimate a microm of 0.15 h(-1) and k(s) of 1.19 g/l. The carotenoid content related to the residence time appeared to assume a typical form of saturation kinetics. The maximum carotenoid content (Xm) for the mutant was estimated to be 1.04 microg/mg dry cell weight, and the Lee constant (k(m)), which was tentatively defined in this work, was found to be 3.0 h.