BIOTECHNOLOGICAL PRODUCTS AND PROCESS ENGINEERING Optimization of nonribosomal peptides production by a psychrotrophic fungus: Trichoderma velutinum ACR-P1 Richa Sharma 1,3 & Varun P. Singh 2,4 & Deepika Singh 2,3 & Farnaz Yusuf 1 & Anil Kumar 4 & Ram A. Vishwakarma 2,3 & Asha Chaubey 1,3 Received: 1 April 2016 /Accepted: 2 May 2016 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Abstract Trichoderma is an anamorphic filamentous fungal genus with immense potential for production of small valu- able secondary metabolites with indispensable biological ac- tivities. Microbial dynamics of a psychrotrophic strain Trichoderma velutinum ACR-P1, isolated from unexplored niches of the Shiwalik region, bestowed with rich biodiversity of microflora, was investigated for production of nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) by metabolite profiling by intact-cell mass spectrometry (ICMS) employing matrix- assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI- TOF) mass spectrometer. Being the first report on NRPs pro- duction by T. velutinum, studies on optimization of growth conditions by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) for pro- duction of NRPs by ACR-P1 was carried out strategically. Multifold enhancement in the yield of NRPs belonging to subfamily SF4 with medium chain of amino acid residues having m/z 1437.9, 1453.9, and 1452.0 at pH 5.9 at 20 °C and of subfamily SF1 with long-chain amino acid residues having m/z 1770.2, 1784.2, 1800.1, 1802.1, and 1815.1 was achieved at pH 7.0 at 25 °C. Complexities of natural mixtures were thus considerably reduced under respective optimized culture conditions accelerating the production of novel micro- bial natural products by saving time and resources. Keywords Trichoderma velutinum . Shiwalik region . Nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) . ICMS . MALDI-TOF MS . Optimization . RSM Introduction Biological diversity implies chemical diversity with constant metabolic and environmental interactions continuously occur- ring and existing in ecosystems, which leads to chemical in- novations, producing diverse array of secondary metabolites (Cragg et al. 2009; Ji et al. 2009) and possessing an unimag- inable potential for diverse use in the field of drug discovery (Dias et al. 2012; Challis, 2008; Newman and Cragg 2012). Wide microbial biodiversity existing in the northwestern Himalayas has been blessed with unexplored microbial cell factories. Among a reservoir of microorganisms from cold habitats that remain unexplored, our present study focuses on a soil-borne filamentous anamorphic fungus Trichoderma velutinum, a new taxon in the section Pachybasium of genus Trichoderma (Bissett et al. 2003) from the cold Shiwalik regions of the northwestern Himalayas. The strain has been explored for production of nonribosomal peptides (NRPs), a class of unique antibiotic peptides biosynthesized by widespread soil bacteria or fungi, endophytic fungi, and some higher organisms such as nudibranchs, structurally, characterized by abundance of nonstandard amino acids like α -aminoisobutyric acid (Aib), isovaline (Iva), 4-hydroxyproline (Hyp), and α-2-amino-4-methyl-6-hy- droxy-8-oxo-decanoic acid (AHMOD) (Wada et al. 1995; Toniolo and Bruckner 2009; Figueroa et al. 2013). NRPs are * Deepika Singh dsingh@iiim.ac.in * Asha Chaubey achaubey@iiim.ac.in 1 Fermentation Technology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu 180001, India 2 Medicinal Chemistry Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu 180001, India 3 Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, New Delhi 110001, India 4 Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biotechnology, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra 182320, India Appl Microbiol Biotechnol DOI 10.1007/s00253-016-7622-5