National
Collection of Industrial Microorganisms
Overview
NCIM is a pioneer microbial culture
collection facility in
Mission
& Goals
- Preservation of the microbial strains by a variety of methods
- Distribution of authentic cultures to research institutes and industries
- Capacity building in culture collection
- Acting as repository of patent strains in addition to the strains used for basic research, indirectly helping to retain important microflora in the country
- Contract research and consultancy services
Competencies
- Isolation and preservation of microbial strains
- Strain improvement
- Microbial and biocatalytic processes for value added products
Facilities
NCIM has state-of-the-art facilities for:
- Lyophilization of microbial cultures
- Long term preservation of specialized cultures
- Microbiological testing of samples
Glimpses
of current research
Strain improvement for production of lactic acid
Lactic acid is an important bulk chemical produced
by fermentation. The present technology for fermentation employs highly
selected strains for rapid fermentation, high lactate tolerance and ability to
ferment at high temperature. The activity of the strains, however, decreases
with lowering of pH due to accumulation of lactic acid in the medium. Lactobacillus
strain which produced 90g/l of lactic acid with productivity of 1.2g/l/h was
subjected to UV-mutagenesis to isolate mutants. One of the mutants yielded
lactic acid (105g/l) with increased productivity (4.7g/l/h).
Chemo enzymatic route for D(-)phenylglycine from DL-5-phenylhydantion
A chemo-enzymatic route to the production
of D(-)phenylglycine from
DL-phenylhydantoin has been explored. A halophilic sp. was isolated from sea water. This strain was
capable of producing high amounts (82g/l) of N-carbamoylphenylglycine
in the reaction broth with 90% conversion efficiency. The N-carbamoylphenylglycine
was chemically converted to D(-) phenylglycine
with 80% chemical yield. Thus the overall efficiency of the process of
converting DL phenylhydantoin to D(-)phenylglycine approaches 70%.
Prostaglandin intermediate preparation of 4(R)- hydroxy
cyclopent-2-en1(S)-acetate
4(R)-hydroxy
cyclopent-2-en1(S)-acetate is an important intermediate in the synthesis of cyclopentanoid natural products, e.g., prostaglandins, prostacyclins, thromboxanes, and
recently in the synthesis of some anti-HIV drugs. The desymmetrization
of mesodiacetate using most of the efficient enzymes,
except PLE, shows pro-S preference yielding 4(S)-hydroxy
configuration. It is possible to get desired 4(R)-hydroxy
configuration from 4(S)-hydroxy configuration which
involves additional steps and the use of diethylaluminium
chloride or DIBALH which are costly and hazardous and hence not recommended for
large scale. A yeast, Trichosporon was identified
from our culture collection which has pro-(R) preference yielding
4-(R)-hydroxycyclopent-2-en1-(S)-acetate from meso-cyclopent-2-en-1,4-diacetate
albeit with low enantioselectivity. Detailed medium
engineering investigations resulted in enhanced enantioselectivity
of the enzyme affording the right enantiomer with 85%
optical purity.
Thermostable galactosidase&phytase from fungus
Thermophilic fungus isolated from soil was found to secrete extracellular,
thermostable alphagalactosidase.
A process for the production of enzyme by solid-state fermentation using
various agriculture residues was developed. The enzyme was purified and
characterized for its structure and function relationship. The enzyme has
applications in animal feed and soyamilk treatment to
remove galactooligosaccharides.
Phytases are the enzymes used for reduction of phytates
in food and animal feed. They increase the bioavailability of phosphate and
liberate the chelated minerals from the feed. Thermostable extracellular phytase was isolated from thermotolerant
by solid state fermentation. Culture conditions were optimized for production
of phytase using various agriculture residues rich in
phytate by solid state fermentation.
Contact
Dr. DV Gokhale
National Chemical Laboratory
,
Pune 411 008
Email :dvg@dalton.ncl.res.in
Phone :+91-20-2588 2702
Fax :+91-20-2588 2702