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ARTICLE

Taguchi Design of the Experimental approach to Increase the Biomass and Cell Wall Chitosan Contents of Zygomycetous Dimorphic Fungus Benjaminiella Poitrasii

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1 Biochemical Sciences Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune-411008, India.
2 Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad-201002, India.
3 Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, Powai, Mumbai-400076, India.
4 Nanobioscience, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune-411004, India.
5 Greenvention Biotech Pvt. Ltd., Pune-412202, India.

* Corresponding Author: e-mail:

Journal of Polymer Materials 2021, 38(3-4), 219-230. https://doi.org/10.32381/JPM.2021.38.3-4.4

Abstract

A dimorphic fungus Benjaminiella poitrasii contains high chitin/chitosan (35% of the cell wall) in the mycelial (M) form than its yeast (Y) form (20% of the cell wall). However, the relative proportion of chitosan is more in yeast form cells (chitosan: chitin ratio, 6:1) than mycelial cells (chitosan: chitin ratio, 3:1). Using the Taguchi design of experimental (DOE) approach, interactions among eight different parameters showed that carbon source (starch, 10 g/L), incubation time (48 h), inoculum (M and Y mixed 10%), yeast extract (6 g/L) and peptone (10 g/L), were optimum for maximum biomass production. Under these conditions, the chitosan yield from the mycelia was 60.89±2.30 mg/g of dry biomass, while from the yeast cells was 28.29±2.7 mg/g. The molecular weights of chitosan isolated from M and Y cells were 41.28 kDa and 21.72 kDa, respectively as measured by gel permeation chromatography. The degree of deacetylation of chitosans as 88.17-90.72% DDA measured by ¹ H-NMR. Furthermore, chitosans from M and Y cells inhibited the growth of plant pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum (MIC₉₀0.1 and 0.4 mg/mL) and Ustilago maydis (MIC₉₀0.4 and 0.8 mg/mL) at lower concentrations as compared to chitosan isolated from marine sources (MIC₉₀ 0.8 and >1.6 mg/mL).

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