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Production of a high viscosity exoploysaccharide, methylan, by Methylobacterium organophilum from methanol was carried out in fed-batch cultures and the rheological properties of methylan fermentation broth were studied. Bacterial biomass showed little influence on viscosity, but the accumulation of methylan caused the increase of viscosity. With proceeding fermention, the viscosity at the same concentration of methylan was significantly increased and methylan solution showed slightly higher pseudoplasticity. The composition changes of methylan were investigated at various fermentation times. Contents of total sugar, reducing sugar and methylan were decreased but contents of acids(pyruvic acid, uronic acid and acetic acid) were increased with the culture time. It was considered that the increased content of acids resulted in the increase of the hyrodynamic domain in the solution due to charge repulsion. Consequently, the solution viscosity increased in propotion to the acids contents of methylan. Cell growth and methylan production were severely decreased by the limitation of dissolved oxygen. However, the cellular activity for methylan production was almost constant regardless of the level of dissolved oxygen. As a result, the high speed of agitation increased the methylan production, the specific production rate of methylan, and the methylan yield of the cell.
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