BIOTECHNOLOGY TECHNIQUES Volume 9 No.8 fAngrist 1995) pp.597-600 Received us revised 22n.d June MICROBIAL LIPASE PRODUCTION ON A POLYMERIC RESIN P. Christen1v2*, N. Angelesl, G. Corzo’, A. Farres3 and S. Revah’ 1 Chemical Engineering Dept., UAWIztapalapa, A.P. 55534,09340 Mexico DF, MEXICO. 2 ORSTOM (Institut Franqais de la Recherche Scientifique pour le Developpement en Cooperation). 3 Biotechnology Dept., UNAM, C.U., 04150 Mexico DF, MEXICO. ABSTRACT Rhizopus d&mar was grown in a submerged culture and produced a lipase at 14 U/ml. It was compared with solid state fermentation with a polymeric resin (Amberlite). The lipase was produced and simultane- ously adsorbed on the support: 96 U/g initial dry matter were obtained when dextrin was used as the carbon source against only 6g and 58 U/g for maltose and glucose, respectively. INTRODUCTION Lipases are widely used enzymes that can be obtained from animals, plants and mi- croorganisms. Microbial lipases are used in the food industry, mainly in dairy products, and are also important in detergent, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and leather processing (Seitz, 1973). New trends are directed toward the use of immobilized lipases in organic solvent for ester synthesis, triglycerides hydrolysis or flavouring compound synthesis (Christen & Lopez-Munguia, 1994). Solid state fermentation (SSF) has been shown to be a suitable method for produc- ing enzymes such as pectinases, amylases, or cellulases (Lonsane & Ghildyal, 1992), but few papers have dealt with the production of lipases. Recently, Rivera-Muiioz et al. (199 l), using Penicillium candidurn grown on wheat bran, found that solid state fermen- tation (SSF) could be appropriate for lipase production. Moreover, anionic supports can be suitable for immobilization as exemplified by Rizzi et al. (1992) who studied the syn- thesis of isoamyl acetate with a commercial immobilized Mucor miehei lipase. It is known that the lipase of Rhizopus d&mar is excreted to the production medi- um (Iwai & Tsujisaka, 1984). The aim of this work was to investigate if it is possible to produce and immobilize simultaneously the Rhizopus delemur lipase on an ion exchange resin. Lipase production in submerged culture and SSF was also compared. EXPERIMENTAL AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES Microorganisms and culture media. R&opus delemur CDBB H313 (CINVESTAV- Mexico) was grown in the nutritive medium previously optimized by Martinez Cruz et al. (1993) and was used both in submerged culture and SSF. Submerged cultures were made in 250 ml Erlenmeyer flasks placed on a shaker at 29°C with an inoculum size of 1x10’ spores/ml. The pH was adjusted to 6 and the agitation speed set at 180 rpm. At the end of the fermentation, the biomass was allowed to settle and the supernatant decanted. In SSF, an anionic resin (Amberlite IRA-900; Rohm & Haas, USA) was used as support * author to whom correspondence should be addressed 597