Enhancing Succinic Acid Production by Sequential Adaptation of Selected Basfia succiniciproducens Strains to Arundo donax Hydrolysate

Abstract

Promising green technologies that can overcome the challenges associated with the use of fossil fuels require microorganisms that can effectively ferment lignocellulosic hydrolysate for biochemical production with reduced sensitivity to toxic chemicals derived from the pretreatment process. In this study, a sequential adaptation approach was developed to obtain new bacterial lines from Basfia (B.) succiniciproducens strains, which are adapted to inhibitory compounds of the Arundo (A.) donax hydrolysate or those that accumulate during the fermentation process. The early adaptation stages resulted in newly adapted B. succiniciproducens bacterial lines that can tolerate fermentation end-products such as acetic, lactic, and succinic acids, as well as toxic compounds such as furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural. These adapted bacterial lines were further investigated to assess their ability to produce succinic acid in an MHM medium supplemented with a filtrate of A. donax hydrolysate. Batch growth tests on a small laboratory scale showed that bacterial lines 2E and 4D produced 5.80 ± 0.56 g L−1 and 5.81 ± 0.39 g L−1 of succinic acid, respectively, after 24 h of fermentation. Based also on its growth rate, the adapted bacterial line B. succiniciproducens 4D was selected for tests in a lab-scale fermenter, where it was able to synthesize up to 17.24 ± 0.39 g L−1 of succinate (corresponding to YSA/gluc 0.96 ± 0.02 g g−1 and to YSA/(G + X) 0.48 ± 0.01 g g−1) from MHM medium added with A. donax hydrolysate. Experiments showed an increase of ~17% compared to the control strain. The overall results demonstrate the potential of adapted bacterial lines for succinate production from A. donax hydrolysate and the development of improved technologies for bio-based succinic acid production.