Poly-gamma-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) is one of the most expensive biological macromolecules with multifarious applications in biomedical, environmental, and other sectors. One of the major challenges encountered during microbial fermentation process is the batch contamination which leads to economic losses, poor yield, and compromised quality of the desired product. Depending on the volume of the product being generated in an industrial setting, these loses maybe enormous. One strategy to tackle this issue is the fermentation under non-sterile conditions using osmophilic microbial strains. In this study, osmophilic Bacillus paralicheniformis (NCIM 5769) strain isolated from honey served as the chassis for the production of high amount of γ-PGA (dry weight of 284 g/L and productivity of 3.94 g/L/h) in batch fermentation using sucrose via non-sterile fermentation. The fermentation process design discussed in this study offers dual advantages such as hyper-osmotic stress–induced non-sterile fermentation and hyper-production of γ-PGA. Furthermore, a predictive pathway for the γ-PGA hyper-production was constructed based on the genome mining analysis which revealed the presence of sucrose utilization genes, osmotic stress–related genes, and γ-PGA biosynthesis genes. In summary, this novel non-sterilization approach will potentially reduce the cost associated with sterilization (an energy-efficient process), eventually leading to the cost-effective production of γ-PGA. Thus, our work serves as an energy-efficient platform, thereby solving the serious challenge of microbial contamination through indigenously developed non-sterile fermentation.
Graphical Abstract