Optimizing the Biomass Production of <i>Pleurotus ostreatus</i> (oyster) in Shake-Flask and Bioreactor

Abstract

Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster) is a world known-edible mushroom. Its fruit bodies are commercially available in the market due to their high nutritional value and medicinal properties. The production of this mushroom is possible through both solid media and submerged cultivation. Nowadays, bioreactors have attracted researchers' attention due to their ability to control environmental conditions, and provide better nutrition, faster, and higher growth of mycelial biomass. This research aimed to optimize the cultivation factors such as pH, incubation time, and volume of inoculation in the Shake flask via response surface methodology (RSM) in order to increase the mycelial biomass. Then, the effect of aeration on the biomass growth was studied within the bioreactor. The results of RSM showed that, the optimal conditions for tested factors; pH, incubation time and inoculation rate was estimated as 6, 11.84 days, and 10% respectively. Under these conditions, the dry weight of fungal biomass was determined as 10.1 g/L. The cultivation results in the bioreactor showed that the highest dry weight mass was 12.13 g/L at 1 vvm aeration, being significantly higher compared to other levels of aeration or even no aeration (control). Therefore, using a bioreactor with optimized conditions could provide a suitable scaling-up system for more production of P. ostreatus cell biomass in a shorter time.