Improvement of fermentative production of exopolysaccharides from Aureobasidium pullulans under various conditions

The optimization of exopolysaccharide (EPS) production was investigated in the polymorphic fungal strain of Aureobasidium pullulans (KCTC 6081) with varying pH, nutrients concentration, and mixing parameters in batch fermentation condition. The maximum production of EPS (similar to 7.5 g/L) was observed at pH 4, while optimum nutrient concentration of carbon (sucrose), nitrogen (NaNO3), phosphorous (K2HPO4), and ascorbic acid was 50 g/L, 5 g/L, 1 g/L and 2 g/L, respectively. Interestingly, EPS productivity under non pH controlled fermentation conditions was 0.12 g/L/h with 400 rpm mixing, while under a controlled pH of 4, the EPS productivity was 0.21 g/L/h with 600 rpm, respectively. The fed-batch fermentation increased the EPS productivity up to 0.345 g/L/h with changing mixing conditions from 200 to 600 rpm and reached 47 g/L with 88% pullulan. Thus, pH and mixing were the key parameters for enhancing EPS production from A. pullulans. It is expected that these optimized parameters can be well used for enhanced industrial production of pullulan.