Enhanced Production of Prodigiosin Utilizing Agro-industrial Yellow Mustard Cake Waste by a Novel Strain Serratia marcescens SBL03.

Prodigiosin is a red-hued bacterial pigment with promising anticancer, antimalarial, antiparasitic, and antibacterial therapeutic properties. However, the commercial exploitation of this secondary metabolite is hindered due to high production cost and poor yield. In this study, the prodigiosin-producing Serratia marcescens SBL03 strain was isolated and identified. The pigment production capability was evaluated first in a complex commercial media, and thereafter in eight different agro-industrial waste materials as the sole source of nutrients. Among them, yellow mustard cake (YMC) medium titred 2.44 g/L prodigiosin, which was 7.62-fold higher than the higher pigment production achieved in the complex media, i.e., the nutrient broth (0.32 g/L of prodigiosin). The prodigiosin production was further enhanced through fermentation optimization exploring the Box-Behnken design (BBD) model and as high as 4.554 g/L titre of prodigiosin was achieved utilizing 1.06% w/v YMC at 28.3 °C temperature after 116 h and 42 min of incubation. This study is a small step towards a circular bioeconomy market with biovalorization of YMC medium for sustainable production of prodigiosin in a reasonable manner.