Resveratrol production by grapevine cells in fed-batch bioreactor: Experiments and modelling

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to scale-up the culture of grapevine cells (Vitis labrusca) from shake-flasks (100 mL) to a 5L stirred bioreactor in order to develop a model able to describe the bioproduction of resveratrol under the controlled conditions of a fed-batch culture. For this study, the biomass, resveratrol and sugar concentrations as well as pH and dissolved oxygen were monitored daily. The experiments were conducted twice over a three month period. The culture was elicited during the exponential growth phase with methyl jasmonate, leading the cells to exhibit a complex behaviour during the resveratrol production phase. A model of the system behaviour involving simple mechanisms is proposed and successfully confronted to the experimental results. This model demonstrates that the system dynamic can be decomposed into four phases: a lag phase (cell growth slowing down), a starting phase (beginning of resveratrol production), a surge phase (significant resveratrol production accompanied by significant cell death) and a stationary phase. Thus, we were able to successfully scale-up resveratrol production from 100 mL flasks to 5L bioreactors.