Fermentation for Plant Growth Regulators
As a leading CDMO, BOC Sciences offers a proven portfolio of fermentation solutions for plant growth regulators. We utilize microorganisms to achieve large scale production of secondary metabolites such as plant growth regulators, including fermentation of valuable products such as amino acids, nucleotides, terpenoids, etc. BOC Sciences continually strives for more advanced technology and greater capacity, and our fermentation team is dedicated to meeting the individual needs of our customers in the agricultural and other industries.
What is Plant Growth Regulators?
Plants depend on certain organic compounds to modify their physiological processes. These compounds, known as plant growth regulators (PGRs), also known as plant hormones, are bio-synthesized during plant metabolism, and they have significant physiological effects on plant growth at very low concentrations. PGRs act within plant cells to stimulate or inhibit specific enzymes or enzyme systems and help regulate plant metabolism.
Classification of PGRs
PGRs are divided into five main groups:
- Auxins: All auxins are compounds with aromatic rings and carboxylic acid groups, and are found in all tissues in a plant.
- Cytokinins (CKs): Naturally occurring CKs are N6 substituted adenine derivatives. CKs can also be produced by recycled tRNAs in plants and bacteria.
- Gibberellins (GAs): GAs are diterpenoids that are found in plants, algae, fungi and bacteria.
- Abscisic acid (ABA): ABA is a sesquiterpenoid and is widely found in plants and also produced by some phytopathogenic fungi, bacteria and metazoans.
- Ethylene: Ethylene is an alkene acting as a plant hormone, which is basically derived from all parts of higher plants.
Based on their effects, plant growth regulators can be further classified into two major groups: plant growth promoters and plant growth inhibitors. Auxins, CKs and GAs are classified as plant growth promoters, while ABA is classified as a plant growth inhibitor. Ethylene can be grouped as either a promoter or a inhibitor.
Production of PGRs
PGRs are found in higher plants, algae, and plant-associated bacteria and fungi. PGRs are not molecules essential for microbial growth and reproduction; they are considered as secondary metabolites of microorganisms. During the fermentation process, microorganisms are able to break down and utilize nutrients as well as accumulate secondary metabolites. Therefore, the production of plant growth regulators by microbial fermentation has promising applications.
Fermentation Production of Plant Growth Regulators
Plant growth regulators are mainly obtained through plant extraction, chemical synthesis and microbial fermentation. However, the extremely low yields and relatively complex chemical structures of plants have limited the development of the first two methods. Compared with plant extraction and chemical synthesis methods, microbial fermentation method to produce plant growth regulators overcomes these disadvantages. The fermentation is able to obtain final products with higher biological activity and purity, easy to scale up for production, and much lower cost.
Microorganisms have great potential as cell factories for plant growth regulators. The biosynthesis of target products is achieved through the expression of heterologous genes, as well as enhanced production through the engineering of microbial hosts. The most common fermentation processes include solid-state fermentation (SSF) and submerged fermentation (SmF). Certain bioactive compounds are produced in higher yields in SSF, while others are extracted using SmF. SSF allows for higher concentrations of biomolecules under water-limited conditions. In addition, SSF creates a natural environment for the growth of filamentous fungi, such as G. fujikuroi, which can be used for industrial production of CA. SmF has the advantages of short period, low cost and high yield.
Fermentation Production Services
- Expression of heterologous genes for plant growth regulator biosynthesis
- Establishment of complete biosynthetic pathways in microbial hosts
- Optimization of culture media and development of fermentation processes
- Scale-up of microbial fermentation production
Why Choose BOC Sciences?
- High plant growth regulator products titer
- Customized fermentation services
- Multiple fermentation production lines
- Efficient and economical downstream process
- Fermentation production process control
- Large-scale fermentation capacity
