Optimizational production of phenyllactic acid by a Lactobacillus buchneri strain via uniform design with overlay sampling methodology

A Lactobacillus buchneri GBS3 strain isolated from the traditional Chinese pickles was used for the production of 3-phenyllactic acid(PLA), an important compound with antimicrobial activities against a wide species of grampositive and gram-negative bacteria and some fungi. The growth performance of this strain in the de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe(MRS) medium, the production of metabolites of valuable organic acids, and the biosynthesis of PLA using this strain as the whole-cell biocatalyst and phenylpyruvic acid(PPA) as the precursor, were investigated experimentally. The uniform design method with overlay sampling was developed for the optimization of the biotransformation conditions. The results showed that although it produced naturally lactic acid with the maximum concentration of 1.84 g·L^(-1) and PLA with the concentration of 0.015 g·L^(-1) after 66 to 72 h cultivation in MRS broth by fermentation, the present strain displayed an effective utilization ability by transforming PPA to PLA. By the uniform design method with overlay sampling for the design and optimization of transformation conditions, a maximum yield of 10.93 g·L^(-1) PLA with the mole conversion ratio of 83.07% from PPA to PLA was achieved under the optimized condition, i.e., 20 g·L^(-1) glucose, 270 g·L^(-1) cells, 13 g·L^(-1) PPA, pH 8.0 and the reaction time of 15 h, indicating that Lactobacillus buchneri GBS3 was an interesting strain for the biosynthesis of PLA via the microbial transformation. The prediction of PLA yield under different conditions was achieved successfully based on the limited information of only a small number of experiments by the uniform design with overlay sampling. Therefore, the present methodology is effective and helpful for the optimization of the biosynthesis processes of PLA.

Effect of Fe, Si and Cooling Rate on the Formation of Fe-and Mn-rich Intermetallics in Al–5Mg–0.8Mn Alloy

The Fe- and Mn-rich intermetallics are of great effect on the mechanical properties of the AA5083 type alloy （Al-5Mg-0.8Mn）. The effect of Fe, Si and cooling rate on the formation of the intermetallics were investigated by analyzing the microstructures of the alloys with different Fe and Si contents. The results indicated that increasing the Fe content resulted in the increase of the Al6（Fe,Mn） phase in both amount and size. In the alloys with high Fe content, the platelet-like Al6（Fe,Mn） compounds lined up and formed a band. Increasing the content of Si resulted in the increase of the Mg2Si phase which formed a network structure. Increasing the cooling rate significantly refined the intermetallics. However, increasing the cooling rate did not change the characteristic of the intermetallic compounds in the alloys with low or medium Si contents. For the alloys with high contents of Fe and Si under the condition of near-rapid cooling, the Fe- and Mn-rich intermetallic compound changed to the quaternary Al15（Fe,Mn）3Si phase and displayed a fine fish bone or Chinese script structure. The refinement of the intermetallics would allow higher tol- erance of Fe and Si contents in the AA5083 alloy produced, for instance, via the continuous strip casting process.