Structured kinetic model to represent the utilization of multiple substrates in complex media during rifamycin B fermentation

Abstract

Industrial fermentations typically use media that are balanced with multiple substitutable substrates including complex carbon and nitrogen source. Yet, much of the modeling effort to date has mainly focused on defined media. Here, we present a structured model that accounts for growth and product formation kinetics of rifamycin B fermentation in a multi-substrate complex medium. The phenomenological model considers the organism to be an optimal strategist with an in-built mechanism that regulates the sequential and simultaneous uptake of the substrate combinations. This regulatory process is modeled by assuming that the uptake of a substrate depends on the level of a key enzyme or a set of enzymes, which may be inducible. Further, the fraction of flux through a given metabolic branch is estimated using a simple multi-variable constrained optimization. The model has the typical form of Monod equation with terms incorporating multiple limiting substrates and substrate inhibition. Several batch runs were set up with varying initial substrate concentrations to estimate the kinetic parameters for the rifamycin overproducer strain Amycolatopsis mediterranei S699. Glucose and ammonium sulfate (AMS) demonstrated significant substrate inhibition toward growth as well as product formation. The model correctly predicts the experimentally observed regulated simultaneous uptake of the substitutable substrate combinations under different fermentation conditions. The modeling results may have applications in the optimization and control of rifamycin B fermentation while the modeling strategy presented here would be applicable to other industrially important fermentations.