Background: Rhodotorula glutinis is capable of synthesizing numerous
valuable metabolites with extensive potential industrial usage. This
paper reports the effect of initial culture medium pH on growth and
protein, lipid, and carotenoid biosynthesis by R. glutinis. Results:
The highest biomass yield was obtained in media with pH 4.0\u20137.0,
and the value after 72 h was 17.2\u201319.4 gd.w./L. An initial pH of
the medium in the range of 4.0\u20137.0 has no significant effect on
the protein (38.5\u201341.3 g/100 gd.w.), lipid (10.2\u201312.7 g/100
gd.w.), or carotenoid (191.7\u2013202.9 \u3bcg/gd.w.) content in the
biomass or on the profile of synthesized fatty acids and carotenoids.
The whole pool of fatty acids was dominated by oleic
(48.1\u201353.4%), linoleic (21.4\u201325.1%), and palmitic acids
(13.0\u201315.8%). In these conditions, the yeast mainly synthesized
torulene (43.5\u201347.7%) and \u3b2-carotene (34.7\u201338.6%),
whereas the contribution of torularhodin was only 12.1\u201316.8%.
Cultivation in medium with initial pH 3.0 resulted in a reduction in
growth (13.0 gd.w./L) and total carotenoid (115.8 \u3bcg/gd.w.),
linoleic acid (11.5%), and torularhodin (4.5%) biosynthesis.
Conclusion: The different values of initial pH of the culture medium
with glycerol and deproteinized potato wastewater had a significant
effect on the growth and protein, lipid, and carotenoid biosynthesis by
R. glutinis