Enhancement of ε-poly-l-lysine (ε-PL) production by a novel producer Bacillus cereus using metabolic precursors and glucose feeding

Epsilon poly-l-lysine (ε-PL) is a homo-biopolymer with approximately 25–30 l-lysine residues. It is a promising natural biopolymer widely used in food and pharmaceutical industry. The present work reports enhanced production of ε-PL with a novel producer Bacillus cereus using amino acids and TCA cycle intermediates in the fermentation medium. Among the various amino acids and TCA cycle intermediates tested 2 mM l-aspartic acid and 5 mM citric acid gave ε-PL yield of 145.5 and 230 mg/L, respectively. A combination of citric acid after 24 h and l-aspartic acid after 36 h improved ε-PL yield from 85 mg/L (control) to 335 mg/L. Glucose feeding strategy along with metabolic precursors was employed which further enhanced ε-PL yield to 565 mg/L. Thus, more than sixfold increase in ε-PL yield was achieved suggesting the potential of Bacillus cereus as a novel ε-PL producer.