Optimization of medium composition for production of chitin-glucan complex and mannose-containing polysaccharides by the yeast Komagataella pastoris

Komagataella pastoris was recently proposed as a source of valuable polysaccharides, namely, the co-polymer chitin-glucan complex (CGC) and mannose-containing polymers (mannans), that are extracted from its cell-wall. In this study, a novel cultivation medium, Medium K, was developed envisaging the simultaneous production of both types of cell-wall polysaccharides. The use of Medium K for the cultivation of K. pastoris resulted in high contents of CGC (19 wt%) and mannans (21 wt%) in the biomass, corresponding to significantly higher products’ volumetric productivities (17.5 and 19.2 g/L day, respectively) compared to previous studies. The produced CGC had a chitin:β-glucan molar ratio of 12:88, similarly to previously reported values for K. pastoris CGC (11:89–19:81), while the mannans were mainly composed of mannose units, with a protein content of 10 wt%. These results demonstrated that the developed optimized medium was suitable for cultivation of K. pastoris and the production of both CGC and mannans. It comprised fewer components with considerably reduced salts content, thus representing a significant simplification of the bioprocess with no precipitation problems, without impacting on the polymers’ composition.