The effect of intracellular amino acids on GSH production by high-cell-density cultivation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The present paper studies the effects of precursor amino acids, i.e., L-glutamic acid (Glu), L-glycine (Gly), and L-cysteine (Cys), on the glutathione (GSH) production. The three amino acids were added during the fermentations. The GSH production was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). It was observed that the cell content of Cys reduced continually, Gly maintained a fairly constant concentration, while Glu remained at a high concentration compared with Cys and Gly. The synthesis of GSH was found to significantly increase after 28 h of fermentation upon addition of 6 mmol l(-1) of each of the three amino acids. Under these conditions, the GSH yields reached 2,250±50 mg l(-1) at 34 h from 1,050±50 mg l(-1) at 28 h. The GC-MS analyses on the effect caused by the addition of amino acids indicated that the addition of Glu was not necessary to improve the GSH production by high-cell-density cultivation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The addition of Cys or Gly individually enhances the production of GSH.