Influence of glycerol and ornithine feeding on clavulanic acid production by Streptomyces clavuligerus

Abstract - The influence of glycerol and ornithine feeding on clavulanic acid (CA) production by Streptomyces clavuligerus was investigated. In batch experiments, CA maximum concentration (Cp max ) ranged randomly from 430 to 560 mg.L -1 , with a maximum increase of 10% in relation to the control run, without ornithine. However, the maximum volumetric productivity of CA (Pp max ) of 13.7 mg.L -1 .h -1 was obtained with 0.66 g.L -1 of ornithine, 44.2% higher than the Pp max in the control run. In fed-batch experiments, Cp max varied within the narrow range from 1.254 to 1.405 g.L -1 , 2.5 times higher than that obtained in the control run. The presence of ornithine increased the Pp max , although it influenced only slightly the Cp max . Concerning glycerol, the highest CA production of 1.6 g.L -1 was obtained in the fed-batch with glycerol and ornithine (180 and 3.7 g.L −1 ) in a 10-L bioreactor, showing a positive effect of ornithine and glycerol, in the proper proportion (48.6:1), on CA biosynthesis.