Biotechnological synthesis of water-soluble food-grade polyphosphate with Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Abstract

Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) is the polymer of phosphate. Water-soluble polyPs with average chain lengths of 2-40 P-subunits are widely used as food additives and are currently synthesized chemically. An environmentally friendly highly scalable process to biosynthesize water-soluble food-grade polyP in powder form (termed bio-polyP) is presented in this study. After incubation in a phosphate-free medium, generally regarded as safe wild-type baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) took up phosphate and intracellularly polymerized it into 26.5% polyP (as KPO3 , in cell dry weight). The cells were lyzed by freeze-thawing and gentle heat treatment (10 min, 70°C). Protein and nucleic acid were removed from the soluble cell components by precipitation with 50 mM HCl. Two chain length fractions (42 and 11P-subunits average polyP chain length, purity on a par with chemically produced polyP) were obtained by fractional polyP precipitation (Fraction 1 was precipitated with 100 mM NaCl and 0.15 vol ethanol, and Fraction 2 with 1 final vol ethanol), drying, and milling. The physicochemical properties of bio-polyP were analyzed with an enzyme assay, 31 P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, among others. An envisaged application of the process is phosphate recycling from waste streams into high-value bio-polyP.

• Authors: Jonas Johannes Christ, Stephanie A Smith, Sabine Willbold, James H Morrissey, Lars Mathias Blank
• Journal: Biotechnology and bioengineering (Biotechnol Bioeng) Vol. 117 Issue 7 Pg. 2089-2099 (07 2020) ISSN: 1097-0290 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 32190899 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Chemical References

• Polyphosphates
• Water

Topics

• Food
• Industrial Microbiology (methods)
• Polyphosphates (metabolism)
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae (metabolism)
• Solubility
• Water (metabolism)