Effect of addition of γ-poly glutamic acid on bacterial nanocellulose production under agitated culture conditions

Background Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC), a natural polymer material, gained significant popularity among researchers and industry. It has great potential in areas, such as textile manufacturing, fiber-based paper, and packaging products, food industry, biomedical materials, and advanced functional bionanocomposites. The main current fermentation methods for BNC involved static culture, as the agitated culture methods had lower raw material conversion rates and resulted in non-uniform product formation. Currently, studies have shown that the production of BNC can be enhanced by incorporating specific additives into the culture medium. These additives included organic acids or polysaccharides. gamma-Polyglutamic acid (gamma-PGA), known for its high polymerization, excellent biodegradability, and environmental friendliness, has found extensive application in various industries including daily chemicals, medicine, food, and agriculture.Results In this particular study, 0.15 g/L of gamma-PGA was incorporated as a medium additive to cultivate BNC under agitated culture conditions of 120 rpm and 30 degree celsius. The BNC production increased remarkably by 209% in the medium with 0.15 g/L gamma-PGA and initial pH of 5.0 compared to that in the standard medium, and BNC production increased by 7.3% in the medium with 0.06 g/L gamma-PGA. The addition of gamma-PGA as a medium additive resulted in significant improvements in BNC production. Similarly, at initial pH levels of 4.0 and 6.0, the BNC production also increased by 39.3% and 102.3%, respectively. To assess the characteristics of the BNC products, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis were used. The average diameter of BNC fibers, which was prepared from the medium adding 0.15 g/L gamma-PGA, was twice thicker than that of BNC fibers prepared from the control culture medium. That might be because that polyglutamic acid relieved the BNC synthesis from the shear stress from the agitation.Conclusions This experiment held great significance as it explored the use of a novel medium additive, gamma-PGA, to improve the production and the glucose conversion rate in BNC fermentation. And the BNC fibers became thicker, with better thermal stability, higher crystallinity, and higher degree of polymerization (DPv). These findings lay a solid foundation for future large-scale fermentation production of BNC using bioreactors.