[Back]

J. Hausjell, M. Miltner, C. Herzig, A. Limbeck, Z. Saracevic, E. Saracevic, J. Weissensteiner, C. Molitor, H. Halbwirth, O. Spadiut:
"Valorisation of cheese whey as substrate and inducer for recombinant protein production in E. coli HMS174(DE3)";
Bioresource Technology Reports, 8 (2019), 100340; 7 pages.

Every year worldwide around 190 million tons of cheese whey are generated resulting in a huge environmental burden. We recently published a study where we showed that E. coli strain HMS174(DE3) can be cultivated using only lactose as C-source and inducer. Motivated by the results we investigated using a concentrated whey feed instead of the lactose feed. Spray drying whey and dissolving the powder allowed preparation of a 40-fold concentrated whey containing 91% lactose and 81% protein of the original whey. Cultivations using the concentrated whey feed instead of a defined lactose feed revealed 39% higher growth rates, 24% higher biomass yields and even higher specific product titers for the model enzymes, flavanone 3-hydroxylase and chalcone 3-hydroxylase. Our strategy simultaneously provides a cheap substrate for large-scale production of technical enzymes and an excellent opportunity for cheese whey valorization, reducing the biological burden resulting from whey wastewaters.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biteb.2019.100340