Impact of Agro-Industrial Side-Streams on Sesquiterpene Production by Submerged Cultured Cerrena unicolor

The quality and harvest of essential oils depend on a large number of factors, most of which are hard to control in an open-field environment. Therefore, Basidiomycota have gained attention as a source for biotechnologically produced terpenoids. The basidiomycete Cerrena unicolor (Cun) was cultivated in submerged culture, and the production of sesquiterpenoids was analyzed via stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), followed by thermo-desorption gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (TDS-GC-MS). Identification of aroma-active sesquiterpenoids was supported by GC, coupled with an olfactory detection port (ODP). Following the ideal of a circular bioeconomy, Cun was submerged (up-scalable) cultivated, and supplemented with a variety of food industrial side-streams. The effects of the different supplementations and of pure fatty acids were evaluated by liquid extraction and analysis of the terpenoids via GC-MS. As sesquiterpenoid production was enhanced by the most by lipid-rich side-streams, a cultivation with ¹³C-labeled acetate was conducted. Data confirmed that lipid-rich side-streams enhanced the sesquiterpene production through an increased acetyl-CoA pool.