Lincomycin, rational selection of high producing strain and improved fermentation by amino acids supplementation

Based on the report that the introduction of the biosynthetic precursor of lincomycin, propylproline, could increase the production of lincomycin (Bruce et al. in US Patent 3,753,859, 1973), a mutant strain pro10-20, with resistance of feedback suppression of proline (an analog of propylproline) was thus selected and lincomycin production increased by 10%. The addition of three amino acids (L-proline, L-tyrosine, L-alanine) which are the precursors of propylproline to the fermentation medium was found to enhance the accumulation of L-dopa through different pathways and was favorable to lincomycin biosynthesis. The production of lincomycin was increased by 23, 10, 13%, respectively, with the addition of 0.05 g L(-1) L-proline at 60 h, 0.005 g L(-1) L-tyrosine and 0.1 g L(-1) L-alanine directly in the medium.