Medium optimization for phenazine-1-carboxylic acid production by a gacA qscR double mutant of Pseudomonas sp. M18 using response surface methodology

Statistics based experimental designs were applied to optimize the culture medium components for enhancing phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) production by Pseudomonas sp. strain M18GQ, a gacA qscR double mutant of Pseudomonas sp. strain M18. The medium components, including soybean meal, glucose and corn steep liquor, had significant effects on PCA production based on a 25−1 fractional factorial design. The concentrations of these three significant factors were subsequently optimized using a central composite design. An optimum concentration of soybean meal 73.3 g/L, corn steep liquor 18.1 g/L, glucose 17.9 g/L, and ethanol 18.0 ml/L was obtained by response surface analysis. The predicted maximum PCA yield was as high as 4011.5 mg/L, and was confirmed by validation experiments. The double mutant M18GQ produced 4032.2 mg/L PCA, which was almost 2 to 3.3-fold that produced by either single mutant M18G and M18Q. The achieved production level is economically useful for industrial application.