Parallel bioreactor cultivation under different pH conditions for surfcatin production and structure evaluation

• Grant number: 24/16549-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: March 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Biochemistry of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Danielle Biscaro Pedrolli
• Grantee: Fabiane de Oliveira Barban
• Supervisor: Matthias Mack
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas (FCFAR). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Hochschule Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/06568-0 - Study of surfactin production and metabolism in a Bacillus subtilis edited strain, BP.IC

Abstract

The production of surfactin, a cyclic lipopeptide, by Bacillus subtilis can be increased using the toolbox of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. In a previous study, many cultivations were conducted in test tubes to analyze the metabolic state of the strain. The conclusions were that the leucine pathway could be a target for editing, as cultures supplemented with leucine showed better surfactin production. To achieve overproduction of leucine in B. subtilis cells, a genome edition was proposed. This edition was made through plasmid construction, transformation, and genome editing, and all these steps were successfully completed. However, during cultivation, it was noted that the pH started at 7 and ended at 9 or 10, which cannot be controlled in test tubes. An alternative for this situation is using bioreactors with sensors and controllers to maintain the pH constant. Therefore, the goal of this project is to test how different pH values can affect surfactin production and structure. To implement this, a parallel system of bioreactors will be used, and the surfactin will be analyzed using HPLC-MS.