BackgroundGamma-aminobutyric acid is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in mammalian brains, and has several well-known physiological functions. Lactic acid bacteria possess special physiological activities and are generally regarded as safe. Therefore, using lactic acid bacteria as cell factories for gamma-aminobutyric acid production is a fascinating project and opens up a vast range of prospects for making use of GABA and LAB. We previously screened a high GABA-producer Lactobacillus brevis NCL912 and optimized its fermentation medium composition. The results indicated that the strain showed potential in large-scale fermentation for the production of gamma-aminobutyric acid. To increase the yielding of GABA, further study on the fermentation process is needed before the industrial application in the future. In this article we investigated the impacts of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate, pH, temperature and initial glutamate concentration on gamma-aminobutyric acid production by Lactobacillus brevis NCL912 in flask cultures. According to the data obtained in the above, a simple and effective fed-batch fermentation method was developed to highly efficiently convert glutamate to gamma-aminobutyric acid.
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