An Overlooked Effect of Glycine Betaine on Fermentation: Prevents Caramelization and Increases the L-Lysine Production

This article focuses on the effects of glycine betaine on preventing caramelization, and increasing DCW and L-lysine production. The additional glycine betaine not only decreased the browning intensity (decreased 4 times), and the concentrations of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (decreased 7.8 times) and furfural (decreased 12 times), but also increased the availability of glucose (increased 17.5%) for L-lysine production. The DCW and L-lysine production were increased by adding no more than 20 mM glycine betaine, whereas the DCW and L-lysine production were decreased with the reduction of pH values, although pH had a better response to prevent caramelization than did glycine betaine. For L-lysine production, the highest increase (40%) was observed on the media with 20 mM glycine betaine. The crucial enzymes in glycolysis and L-lysine biosynthesis pathway were investigated. The results indicated that additional glycine betaine increases the activity of enzymes in glycolysis, in contrast to the effect of pH. All the results indicated that glycine betaine can be used to prevent caramelization and increase the L-lysine production. By applying this strategy, glucose would not be have to be separated from the culture media during autoclaving so that factories can save production costs and shorten the fermentation period.