Medium engineering for enhanced production of undecylprodigiosin antibiotic in Streptomyces coelicolor using oil palm biomass hydrolysate as a carbon source

•Oil palm biomass hydrolysate has furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural as inhibitors.•Furfural effects xylose utilization in S. coelicolor adversely.•Mycelia formation is decreased with reduction in actinorhodin production.•Furfural elicits undecylprodigiosin production in S. coelicolor up to 52%.•Engineered EFB hydrolysate media resulted a 88% higher undecylprodigiosin production.

In this study, a biosugar obtained from empty fruit bunch (EFB) of oil palm by hot water treatment and subsequent enzymatic saccharification was used for undecylprodigiosin production, using Streptomyces coelicolor. Furfural is a major inhibitor present in EFB hydrolysate (EFBH), having a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 1.9 mM, and it reduces utilization of glucose (27%), xylose (59%), inhibits mycelium formation, and affects antibiotic production. Interestingly, furfural was found to be a good activator of undecylprodigiosin production in S. coelicolor, which enhanced undecylprodigiosin production by up to 52%. Optimization by mixture analysis resulted in a synthetic medium containing glucose:furfural:ACN:DMSO (1%, 2 mM, 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively). Finally, S. coelicolor was cultured in a fermenter in minimal medium with EFBH as a carbon source and addition of the components described above. This yielded 4.2 μg/mg dcw undecylprodigiosin, which was 3.2-fold higher compared to that in un-optimized medium.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide