High-throughput system for screening of Monascus purpureus high-yield strain in pigment production

Background: An economical and integrated high-throughput primary screening strategy was developed for high-aerobic microbe Monascus purpureus cultivation. A novel and effective mixture culture method was proposed and used to realize the whole mutant library being high-throughput screened after mutagenesis. Results: The good correlation of fermentation results between differing-scale cultivations confirmed the feasibility of utilizing the 48-deep microtiter plates (MTPs) as a scale-down tool for culturing high-aerobic microbes. In addition, the fluid dynamics of 24-, 48-, and 96-deep MTPs and 500-mL shake flask were studied respectively using the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tool ANSYS CFX 11.0 to get better understanding of their turbulent regimes. Conclusions: The by-product citrinin production had no significant change while the pigment production had improved. As a result, the high-yield strain T33-6 was successfully screened out and the pigment was more than 50% higher than that of the parental strain in the shake flask.