Development of a cost-effective medium for Photorhabdus temperata bioinsecticide production from wastewater and exploration of performance kinetic

This study investigates the optimization of the culture conditions for enhancing Photorhabdus temperata biopesticide production using wastewater (WS4) as a raw material. Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to evaluate the effects of carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), sodium chloride concentration and inoculum size on P. temperata biomass production and insecticidal activity. For an enhanced biopesticide production, the optimum operating conditions were as follows: inoculum size = 4%; C/N ratio = 12.5 and [NaCl] = 4 g/L for two responses. 1.95 and 2.75 fold improvements in oral toxicity and biomass production were respectively obtained in the cost-effective medium developed in this study (WS4 I) using the three variables at their optimal values. Under the optimized conditions, WS4 I-grown cells exhibited higher membrane integrity according to flow cytometry analysis since dead cells presented only 9.2% compared to 29.2% in WS4. From batch fermentations carried out in WS4 I and WS4, P. temperata kinetic parameters in terms of biomass production and substrate consumption rates were modeled. The obtained results showed that the maximum specific growth rate in WS4 I was of 0.43 h(−1) while that obtained in WS4 was of 0.14 h(−1). In addition, the efficiency of P. temperata to metabolize organic carbon was enhanced by optimizing the culture conditions. It reached 72.66% instead of 46.18% in the control fermentation after 10 h of incubation. Under the optimized conditions, P. temperata cells showed the highest specific consumption rate resulting in a toxin synthesis improvement.