Monitoring of Growth and Production Characteristics of Red Yeasts Cultivated on Hydrothermally Pretreated Lignocellulosic Pine Material

Abstract

The aim of this work was to compare the production of carotenes and ergosterol by red yeasts grown on pine lignocellulose substrates. The yeast strains Rhodotorula aurantiaca and Sporobolomyces shibatanus were grown on the liquid fraction of steam pretreated pine (210 °C, catalyst SO2). Biomass production on a pine hydrolysate was lower than on glucose. The highest content of carotenoids and ergosterol in the cells of R. aurantiaca grown on pine hydrolysate was about 1.7 mg g–1 and 0.8 mg g–1 (dwt), respectively, and in S. shibatanus about 0.9 mg g–1 and 0.1 mg g–1, respectively. Hemicellulose hydrolysates may contain many compounds that have inhibitory effects on microorganisms. In this work, the influences of some inhibitors were assessed by cultivating yeasts on media with a representative addition of the selected compounds. From these tests, furfural appears to be the most critical inhibitor, whereas acetic acid and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) do not affect the growth so much.

Keywords

• lignocellulose
• steam pretreatment
• red yeasts
• carotenoids
• ergosterol