Not only osmoprotectant: Betaine increased lactate dehydrogenase activity and l-lactate production in lactobacilli

Lactobacilli are commonly used for industrial production of polymer-grade l-lactic acid. The present study tested the Tween 80 alternative betaine in l-lactate production by several industrial lactobacilli. In flask fermentation of Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus buchneri, Lactobacillus lactis and Lactobacillus rhamnosus, the betaine addition (2 g/l) had similar osmoprotectant effect with Tween 80 but had increased the lactate dehydrogenase activities and l-lactate production than Tween 80 control. In fed-batch fermentation of L. casei, betaine supplementation improved the l-lactic acid titer to 190 g/l, the yield to 95.5% (g l-lactic acid/g glucose), the productivity to 2.6 g/l h, and the optical purity to 97.0%. The results demonstrated that supplementation of Tween 80 alternative – betaine in the fermentation medium is feasible for industrial l-lactic acid fermentation by lactobacilli, which will improve the lactate production but will not increase the process costs and modify any process conditions.