PURPOSE: To obtain a novel strain, Phaffia rhodozyma, that can produce an oxy-carotenoid pigment, astaxanthin useful as a feed additive giving rose pink color to salmons, crustaceans, birds and the like by the flask shaking culture under proper conditions.
CONSTITUTION: A strain of Phaffia rhodozyma is secondarily cultured in Erlenmeyer flasks to effect incubation on a shaking machine at 20°C for 48 hours. The culture mixture is centrifuged to collect the cell pellets and the pellets are suspended again in a sterilized citrate buffer solution at a pH of 5.5. A mutagenic agent, 1-methyl-1-nitro-nitrosoguanidine(NTG) is added to this suspension, and they are incubated without agitation at room temperature for 15 minutes. Then, the incubated suspension is centrifuged to collect the cell bodies and they are subjected to plate culture in a culture medium at 20°C for 10 days to obtain a novel Phaffia rhodozyma strain (for example, PC8089 (NRRL-Y-10921) that can produce astaxanthin in an amount of about 2,700-8025 μg/g cells on the dry basis, when the strain is cultured under proper conditions.
TERII DONERU DEITSUKUSON
ROBIN RASHIERU HARISU
