Biosynthesis of L-Phenylacetylcarbinol from locally isolated yeasts

In the present study,250 yeast strains were isolated from samples of different natural sources as cane-molasses,decaying vegetables and bagasse using glucose enriched medium. among these,106 strains showed no growth in acetaldehyde (1 g/l) supplemented yeast extract-peptone dextrose plates during qualitative screening. in the course of quantitative screening,64 acetaldehyde tolerants gave almost negligible l-pac production (≤0.5 g/l) using glucose-peptone medium in shake flasks. a comparatively better l-pac production was observed with the rest of strains. the isolate saccharomyces cerevisiae gcu-36 exhibited higher l-pac production (2.58 g/l). however,lower sugar consumption and subsequent biomass formation was noted. therefore,yeast gcu-36 was selected as a hyperproducer of l-pac in batch culture.