Effects of Surfactant on Solubility and Microbial Conversion of Steroid

Enhancing the dispersion and dissolution of substrate particles in substrate water suspension is a feasible way to improve steroid bioconversion. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of applying surfactant to microbial conversion system on the dispersion, solubilization and in turn bioconversion of steroid substrate. The model system is hydroxylation of substrate 19α- 17α-epoxy- 4-pregnene- 3.2It-dine by microbial enzymes from Rhizopus nigricanl. The results show that the presence of substrate leads to an increase in critical micelle concentration （ CMC） of surfactant PSE compared with the normal CMC of PSE in aqueous solution. The grinding time during substrate suspension preparation affects the substrate aqueous solubility differently with the varied surfactant concentrations while barely making any difference in substrate solubility in the absence of surfactant. The properly prolonged grinding time can make up for the loss in substrate solubility arising from the reduction in surfactant concentration. The surfactant complexes composed of surfactants PSE and MGE at appropriate ratios are screened out with orthodoxy experiment method. the interaction between PSE and MGE exerts the most prominent effects on substrate bioconversion, and the surfactant complexes show more beneficial effects on steroid bioconversion than the surfactant PSE used alone.

Screening and Identification of Strains Converting Trans-anethole to Anisic Acid

[Objectives] This study was conducted to isolate and screen the bacteria that can convert trans-anethole to anisic acid from star anise and its environmental samples, and identify the bacteria. [Methods] According to the traditional microbial culture method, with trans-anethole as the sole carbon source, through enrichment culture and separation and purification, preliminary screening by thin layer chromatography and re-screening by high-performance liquid chromatography, strains that degraded trans-anethole to produce anisic acid were obtained, and 16 S rDNA sequencing and phylogenetic tree construction were performed for genetic analysis. [Results] Eleven strains that degraded trans-anethole to produce anisic acid were obtained, among which strain NT2 that produced anisic acid with a relatively high efficiency was initially identified as Pseudomonas sp. The strain’s trans-anethole degradation rate was 45.41%, and the molar production rate and cumulative concentration of anisic acid were 21.80% and 1.96 g/L, respectively. [Conclusions] Strain NT2 has a strong ability to degrade trans-anethole to produce anisic acid, and can enrich strain resources for degradation of trans-anethole to anisic acid through microbial conversion.