Bioprocess for efficient production of recombinant Pichia anomala phytase and its applicability in dephytinizing chick feed and whole wheat flat Indian breads.

The phytase of the yeast Pichia anomala (PPHY) is a suitable biocatalyst as a food and feed additive because of its adequate thermostability, acid stability, protease insensitivity and broad substrate spectrum. The cell-bound nature and low phytase titres are the main bottlenecks for its utility in food and feed industries. In this investigation, we have overcome the problems by constitutive secretory expression of PPHY under glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase (GAP) promoter. A ~44-fold increase in rPPHY titre has been achieved after optimization of cultural variables by one-variable-at-a-time approach and two factorial statistical design. The use of GAP promoter makes the cultivation of the recombinant P. pastoris straight forward and eliminates the requirement of methanol for induction and hazards associated with its storage. Among metal-phytate complexes, Ca(2+) phytate is hydrolyzed more efficiently by rPPHY than Co(2+), Mn(2+), Mg(2+), Fe(3+) and Zn(2+) phytates. The enzyme is effective in dephytinizing whole wheat unleavened flat Indian breads (naan and tandoori) and different broiler feeds, thus mitigating anti-nutritional effects of phytates.