Development of high penicillin producing strains for solid state fermentation.

Penicillin production with an industrial strain and 4 strains of P. chrysogenum, in solid state fermentation (SSF) and liquid submerged fermentation (LSF), was determined. Their ability to produce the antibiotic in SSF in relation to their capacity to do so in LSF was evaluated. this was done by calculating the ratio PS/PL (production in SSF/production in LSF), which was called relative production. Clones were isolated from each strain and evaluated in a similar way. The strains presented different relative productions (from 1.4 to 2.5). Within the clones, a much wider range of relative productions was observed (0.6 to 16.7). On the other hand, the highest-producing strains in LSF were also the highest producers in SSF. This indicates that the production potential of a strain is an important factor in its production level in SSF. Moreover, the highest penicillin producing ciones (9,500 to 10,500 microg of penicillin/g were generated from high-yielding strains (P2 and ASP-78). However, the higher-producing strains (in LSF) showed lower relative performance, suggesting that higher producing strains tend to express less efficiently their potential in SSF. In this study, several overproducing clones, particularly suited for SSF, were obtained by the procedures followed. Production increases of 500 to 600 %, in this culture system, were achieved.