Moesziomyces spp. cultivation using cheese whey: new yeast extract-free media, β-galactosidase biosynthesis and mannosylerythritol lipids production

Miguel Figueiredo Nascimento; Ricardo Barreiros; Ana Cristina Oliveira; Frederico Castelo Ferreira; Nuno Torres Faria

doi:10.1007/s13399-022-02837-y

Moesziomyces spp. cultivation using cheese whey: new yeast extract-free media, β-galactosidase biosynthesis and mannosylerythritol lipids production

Biomass Convers Biorefin. 2022 Jun 2:1-14. doi: 10.1007/s13399-022-02837-y. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Miguel Figueiredo Nascimento^{1

2}, Ricardo Barreiros¹, Ana Cristina Oliveira³, Frederico Castelo Ferreira^{1

2}, Nuno Torres Faria^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Bioengineering and IBB-Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Instituto Superior TécnicoUniversidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal.
² Associate Laboratory i4HB-Institute for Health and Bioeconomy, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal.
³ Laboratório Nacional de Energia E Geologia, I.P., Unidade de Bioenergia, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar 22, 1649-038 Lisbon, Portugal.

Abstract

Mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs) are biosurfactants with excellent biochemical properties and a wide range of potential applications. However, high production costs, low productivity and unsatisfactory scale-up production have hampered commercial adoption. Herein, we report for the first time the β-galactosidase production by Moesziomyces spp. from different sugars (D-galactose, D-glucose and D-lactose), with D-galactose being the best β-galactosidase inducer, with 11.2 and 63.1 IU/mg_biomass, for Moesziomyces aphidis 5535^T and Moesziomyces antarcticus 5048^T, respectively. The production of this enzyme allows to break down D-lactose and thus to produce MEL directly from D-lactose or cheese whey (a cheese industry by-product). Remarkably, when CW was used as sole media component (carbon and mineral source), in combination with waste frying oil, MEL productivities were very close (1.40 and 1.31 g_MEL/L/day) to the ones obtained with optimized medium containing yeast extract (1.92 and 1.50 g_MEL/g_susbtrate), both for M. antarcticus and M. aphidis. The low-cost, facile and efficient process which generates large amounts of MELs potentiates its industrialization.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13399-022-02837-y.

Keywords: Cheese whey; Manosylerithritol lipids (MELs); Moesziomyces spp; Yeast extract free media; β-galactosidase.