RESUMO
In recent years, a significant interest has been generated in discovering and developing exopolysaccharides (EPS) produced by microorganisms, especially fungi due to their multifaceted industrial and pharmacological applications. A number of filamentous and cellular fungi have been explored for this; however, according to the existing literature, the work on exopolysaccharide production by indigenous culture on this aspect is still very less and requires a serious attention. The present work is an attempt in this regard and aims to optimize the submerged culture conditions to produce the exopolysaccharides from an indigenous yeast Aureobasidium pullulans RYLF-10 with respect to several operating parameters in shake flask fermentation. The yeast A. pullulans RYLF-10 was identified by 18s RNA sequencing and detailed study on its nutritional requirements, and environmental conditions for submerged culture have been optimized. The optimal temperature and pH for both the vegetative growth and EPS production were found to be 28 ± 1 °C and 5.0, respectively, while the agitation speed and inoculum size were reported to be 150 rpm and 1 % (v/v), respectively. Sucrose (50 g/l) and yeast extract (1 g/l) were found to be the most suitable carbon and nitrogen sources which worked best in the ratio of 60:1 and resulted in the maximum EPS yield. Similarly, the other variables like growth regulator (riboflavin) and minerals (NaCl + K2HPO4 + MgSO4) altogether resulted in a noteworthy EPS yield of 45.24 g/l which is the maximum yield from this indigenous isolate of A. pullulans RYLF-10.
