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Burst agitation rate promotes sustained semicontinuous cultivation of filamentous fungi in stirred tank reactors

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Edible filamentous fungi L. edodes (shiitake mushrooms) were cultivated in submerged fermentation in stirred tank bioreactors (STR) both in batch and semicontinuous cultivation in a corn steep liquor (CSL) medium. The adjustment of a combination of constant impeller agitation speed, a short duration of a high-speed agitation (burst), and the frequency of bursts improved biomass (cell dry weight (CDW) titre from 1.75 to 4.95 g/L in a 96-h batch cultivation. These bioreactor process conditions were applied to a semicontinuous culture strategy to produce similar biomass density at a dilution rate of 0.02 h −1 for up to 10 days without washout over the duration of the fermentation. An increase in the dilution rate above 0.02 h −1 resulted in washout of L. edodes over time. Using a richer growth medium through the addition of malt extract, peptone, and molasses allowed L. edodes to grow to 4.7 g/L at a dilution rate of 0.025 h −1 without washout. The maximum biomass productivity (396 mg CDW/h) of the semicontinuous cultivation ( D = 0.02 h −1 ) was 1.9-fold higher than the batch cultivation 206 mg CDW/hour. Use of the richer growth medium at D = 0.025 h −1 improved biomass productivity further to 470 mg/h. Glucans, known bioactives, were present in the fungal biomass at a maximum of 14% of the cell dry weight (CDW) with b-glucans predominating over a-glucans. Key points • Short, high-speed impeller bursts homogenise mycelia preventing bioreactor clogging. • Semicontinuous fermentation at D of 0.02 h−1 generated 5.1 g/L of fungal biomass. • Cultivation of fungal biomass in STR resulted in biomass with 14% of total glucans.
DOI: 10.1007/s00253-025-13579-y
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,190
OpenAlex ID: W4413274932
FWCI: 0.235
Cites: 22
Cited by: 1
Related to: 10