Author(s)

Samar S. Qasim¹, Khalida A. Shakir¹, A. B. Al-Shaibani², Marie K. Walsh³

¹Department of Food Science, College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.
²College of Biotechnology, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq.
³Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.

The effects of nutrients and physical conditions on phytase production were investigated with a recently isolated strain of Aspergillus tubingensis SKA under solid state fermentation on wheat bran. The nutrient factors investigated included carbon source, nitrogen source, phosphate source and concentration, metal ions (salts) and the physical parameters investigated included inoculum size, pH, temperature and fermentation duration. Our investigations revealed that optimal productivity of phytase was achieved using wheat bran supplemented with: 1.5% glucose. 0.5% (NH₄)₂SO₄, 0.1% sodium phytate. Additionally, optimal physical conditions were 1 × 10⁵ spore/g substrate, initial pH of 5.0, temperature of fermentation 30°C and fermentation duration of 96 h. Overall, a 34% improvement in phytase activity was achieved by using the optimal conditions.

Phytase, Aspergillus tubingensis SKA, Solid State Fermentation, Optimization

Qasim, S. , Shakir, K. , Al-Shaibani, A. and Walsh, M. (2017) Optimization of Culture Conditions to Produce Phytase from Aspergillus tubingensis SKA. Food and Nutrition Sciences, 8, 733-745. doi: 10.4236/fns.2017.87052.