BIOSYNTHESIS OF L-PHENYLACETYLCARBINOL FROM LOCALLY ISOLATED YEASTS

Abstract

In the present study, 250 yeast strains were isolated from samples of different natural sources as cane-molasses, decaying vegetables and bagasse using glucose enriched medium. Among these, 106 strains showed no growth in acetaldehyde (1 g/l) supplemented yeast extract-peptone dextrose plates during qualitative screening. In the course of quantitative screening, 64 acetaldehyde tolerants gave almost negligible L-PAC production (≤0.5 g/l) using glucose-peptone medium in shake flasks. A comparatively better L-PAC production was observed with the rest of strains. The isolate Saccharomyces cerevisiae GCU-36 exhibited higher L-PAC production (2.58 g/l). However, lower sugar consumption and subsequent biomass formation was noted. Therefore, yeast GCU-36 was selected as a hyperproducer of L-PAC in batch culture.