Optimization of Process Parameters for Bioactive Metabolite Production by Nocardiopsis trehalosi VSM-13 Using Response Surface Methodology and Unstructured Kinetic Modelling

Nocardiopsis trehalosi VSM 13, an actinobacterium isolated from marine environment was tested for the optimum culture conditions in shake-flask fermentations using one-factor-at-atime method. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based Central composite Design was used to design the experiments, build the model and determine the optimum conditions for the desirable responses. RSM using a full factorial Box-Behnken design evaluated the optimized process conditions as 10 days of incubation time, pH-8.0, temperature-35°C, fructose @ 1.5% (w/v) and yeast extract @ 1% (w/v) which influenced the bioactive metabolite production by N. trehalosi VSM 13 and RSM model obtained results (R² > 0.99) revealed a satisfactory correlation between the experimental and predicted values. Unstructured kinetic model-based parameters were also evaluated using non-linear regression method to test the fitness of the selected models. Parameters of growth and substrate utilization rates have shown excellent significant R2 values of 0.996 and 0.994, respectively.