Influence of dissolved oxygen concentration on intracellular pH for regulation of Aspergillus niger growth rate during citric acid fermentation in a stirred tank bioreactor

In this paper we report the regulation of Aspergillus niger growth rate during citric acid fermentation in a stirred tank bioreactor. For this, the influence of dissolved oxygen concentration in a medium on intracellular pH values and consequently on overall microbial metabolism was emphasized. Intracellular pH of mycelium grown under different concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the medium was determined. Sensitivity of proteins toward proton concentration is well recognized, therefore pH influences on the activities of key regulatory enzymes of Aspergillus niger were determined at pH values similar to those detected in the cells grown under lower dissolved oxygen concentrations. The results have shown significantly reduced specific activities of hexokinase, 6-phosphofructokinase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in more acidic environment, while pyruvate kinase was found to be relatively insensitive towards higher proton concentration. As expected, due to the reduced specific activities of regulatory enzymes under more acidic conditions, overall metabolism should be hindered in the medium with lower dissolved oxygen concentration which was confirmed by detecting the reduced specific growth rates. From the studies, we conclude that dissolved oxygen concentration affects the intracellular pH and thus growth rate of Aspergillus niger during the fermentation process.