Abstract
Beauveria bassiana is an entomopathogenic fungus that is used for the biological control of different agricultural pest insects. B. bassiana is traditionally cultivated in submerged fermentation and solid-state fermentation systems to obtain secondary metabolites with antifungal activity and infective spores. This work presents the design and characterization of a new laboratory-scale biofilm bioreactor for the simultaneous production of oosporein and aerial conidia by B. bassiana PQ2. The reactor was built with materials available in a conventional laboratory. KLa was determined at different air flows (1.5–2.5 L/min) by two different methods in the liquid phase and in the exhaust gases. The obtained values showed that an air flow of 2.5 L/min is sufficient to ensure adequate aeration to produce aerial conidia and secondary metabolites by B. bassiana. Under the conditions studied, a concentration of 183 mg oosporein per liter and 1.24 × 109 spores per gram of support was obtained at 168 h of culture. These results indicate that the biofilm bioreactor represents a viable alternative for the production of products for biological control from B. bassiana.
Highlights
The production of spores and metabolites, such as antibiotics, enzymes, and pigments from filamentous fungi, has taken on global importance for the biological control of pests and biotechnological purposes [1,2,3,4,5]
0.97 gaseous phases allowed the characterization of the biofilm reactor
The dissolved oxygen concentration is the result of the oxygen transfer rate (OTR) from the gaseous phase to the liquid phase and the oxygen uptake rate (OUR)
Summary
The production of spores and metabolites, such as antibiotics, enzymes, and pigments from filamentous fungi, has taken on global importance for the biological control of pests and biotechnological purposes [1,2,3,4,5]. These metabolites have been produced using fermentation systems, such as submerged fermentation (SmF) and solid-state fermentation (SSF), which differ in the nature of their operating conditions [6,7,8,9]. It produces enzymes and secondary metabolites, such as bassianin, tenellin, beauvericin, bassiacridin, and oosporein; this last one has been characterized as a soluble red pigment with the formula C14 H10 O8 , and there is great scientific interest in mass producing it for biotechnological applications [12,13]
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