Submerged culture production of 5'-phosphodiesterase by streptomyces albus

The flavor enhancing properties of certain 5'-ribonucleotides have been known for some time. In 1913, Kodama (20)* reported on the seasoning effect of inosine-5-phosphate (5’-IMP). This compound was also identified as one of the important beef flavor precursors by Batzer and LandMann (3). Kuninaka (21) found that guanosine-5-phosphate (5'-GMP) and xanthine-5-phosphate (5'-XMP) also had a flavoring effect similar to 5’-IMP. Snake venom (16) and intestional mucosa (6) were known as sources of 5'-phosphodiesterase capable of hydrolyzing the phosphate ester linkages of ribonucleic acid (RNA) to produce 5'-ribonucleotides. Recently, it has been discovered that many microorganisms (22,23,25,26,27) produce 5'-phosphodiesterase. Therefore, it has become possible to use certain microorganisms as sources of 5'-phosphodiesterase for use in production of 5'-ribonucleotides from RNA. With this in mind, a strain of Streptomyces albus, known to produce 5'-phosphodiesterase in submerged culture (23), was studied to determine the effects of various factors (pH, temperature, and nutrients) on growth and enzyme production and to scale up production from laboratory to pilot-plant quantity.