Aureobasidium Mutant Strain for Low-Pigment Beta-Glucan Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge is to produce a β-glucan-containing composition from Aureobasidium microorganisms with low pigment accumulation and high β-glucan productivity, suitable for use in food and cosmetics, while maintaining product merchantability and avoiding complex purification processes.
Innovation Solution
A mutant strain of Aureobasidium sp. is created through ultraviolet light irradiation or mutagen treatment, resulting in a composition with a high β-glucan content (0.3% by mass or more) and low pigmentation, allowing for efficient production in a liquid medium with controlled pH, which can be used in food and cosmetics without affecting their appearance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a microorganism belonging to the genus Aureobasidium sp. is used to produce β-glucan, then high β-glucan productivity is achieved, but high pigment accumulation occurs resulting in dark green color
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the harmful pigment component from the Aureobasidium culture system. By developing a mutant strain with reduced pigment accumulation capability while maintaining β-glucan production, the harmful factor (pigment) is effectively taken out of the production system, allowing the beneficial β-glucan to be produced without the unwanted dark green coloration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the biological parameters of the Aureobasidium microorganism through mutagenesis to create a strain that produces less pigment. By altering the genetic parameters of the microorganism, the balance between β-glucan production and pigment accumulation is shifted, resulting in a strain that maintains high productivity while generating minimal pigment.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If purification process is applied to remove pigment, then pigmentation is reduced, but process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-modifying the Aureobasidium strain through mutagenesis before the actual β-glucan production process. This preliminary genetic modification ensures that the strain inherently produces minimal pigment from the start, eliminating the need for subsequent complex purification steps to remove pigment. The harmful factor is prevented rather than treated.
3Productivity
If typical Aureobasidium strain is used, then β-glucan production is achieved, but product merchantability decreases due to dark color
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the color-related parameters of the Aureobasidium strain through mutagenesis, creating a variant that produces light-colored or colorless cultures while maintaining β-glucan production capabilities. This parameter change makes the final product more acceptable for commercial applications where appearance matters, such as food and cosmetic products.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The mutant strain enables the production of a β-glucan composition with high concentration and low pigmentation, ensuring product merchantability and ease of sterilization, while maintaining the microbiological properties of the parent strain, thus providing a functional material for health and beauty applications.
Implementation Method 1
the mutant strain created by subjecting a microorganism belonging to the genus Aureobasidium sp. as a parent strain to an irradiation with ultraviolet light or a treatment with a mutagen to mutagenize
Data Source
AI summary
It is intended to utilize β-glucan produced by a bacterium belonging to Aureobasidium sp. From a bacterium belonging to Aureobasidium sp., a mutant with little pigment accumulation is constructed by a mutagenesis means of, for example, irradiating with ultraviolet light or treating with a mutagen. A culture obtained by culturing this mutant in a liquid culture medium is usable as a composition with a large β-glucan content without showing any intense dark green color caused by the accumulation of melanin-like pigments. This composition may be taken as such as a functional food having the physiologically active functions of the β-glucan-containing composition. Alternatively, it may be added to foods, drinks. food additives, cosmetics and so on.