Improved production of andrimid in Erwinia persicina BST187 strain by fermentation optimization

Background Andrimid is reported to be a novel kind of polyketide-nonribosomal peptide hybrid product (PK-NRPs) that inhibits fatty acid biosynthesis in bacteria.

Considering its great potential in biomedicine and biofarming, intensive studies have been conducted to increase the production of andrimid to overcome the excessive costs of chemosynthesis.

In screening for species with broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, we detected andrimid in the fermentation products of Erwinia persicina BST187.

To increase andrimid production, the BST187 fermentation medium formulation and fermentation conditions were optimized by using systematic design of experiments (One-Factor-At-A-Time, Plackett–Burman design, Response Surface Methodology).

Results The results indicate that the actual andrimid production reached 140.3 ± 1.28 mg/L under the optimized conditions (trisodium citrate dihydrate-30 g/L, beef extract-17.1 g/L, MgCl_2·6H_2O-100 mM, inoculation amount-1%, initial pH-7.0, fermentation time-36 h, temperature-19.7℃), which is 20-fold greater than the initial condition without optimization (7.00 ± 0.40 mg/L), consistent with the improved antibacterial effect of the fermentation supernatant.

Conclusions The present study provides valuable information for improving andrimid production via optimization of the fermentation process, which will be of great value in the future industrialization of andrimid production.