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Truffle (Tuber spp.), also known as "underground gold," is popular in various cuisines because of its unique and characteristic aroma. Currently, truffle fruiting bodies are mostly obtained from nature and semi-artificial cultivation. However, the former source is scarce, and the latter is time-consuming, usually taking 4 to 12 years before harvest of the fruiting body. The truffle submerged fermentation process was first developed in Tang's lab as an alternative to its fruiting bodies. To the best of our knowledge, most reports of truffle submerged fermentation come from Tang's group. This review examines the current state of the truffle submerged fermentation process. First, the strategy to optimize the truffle submerged fermentation process is summarized; the final conditions yielded not only the highest reported truffle biomass but also the highest production of extracellular and intracellular polysaccharides. Second, the comparison of metabolites produced by truffle fermentation and fruiting bodies is presented, and the former were superior to the latter. Third, metabolites (i.e., volatile organic compounds, equivalent umami concentration, and sterol) derived from truffle fermentation could be regulated by fermentation process optimization. These findings indicated that submerged fermentation of truffles can be used for commercial production of biomass and metabolites as a promising alternative to generating its fruiting bodies in bioreactor.

Besides the identified key factors of pH-shift from 3.0 to 4.5 on day 4 and dissolved oxygen tension (DOT) shift from 25 to 10% on day 6, lower shear stress was also demonstrated to be a key factor in scaling-up the fed-batch fermentation of the medicinal mushroom Ganoderma lucidum from a shake flask to a stirred-tank bioreactor. The maximal biomass (22.62 g/L), intercellular polysaccharide production (4.74 g/L), and ganoderic acid production (798.0 mg/L) were attained at a low impeller tip speed of 1.234 m/s. Based on the identified key factors of pH-shift, DOT-shift and lower shear stress, the fed-batch fermentation of G. lucidum was successfully step-wise scaled-up from 7.5- to 200-L stirred-tank bioreactor. Through the qualitative and quantitative side-by-side comparison of G. lucidum growth and metabolites accumulation, it was concluded that the comparability of the fed-batch fermentation process were well controlled and the products were maintained during the process scale-up.

Uniform design and partial least squares regression were adopted to quantitatively analyze the effects of plant oil and fatty acid as well as their addition amount and addition time on the performance of Tuber melanosporum submerged fermentation. The regression models showed the optimal scheme was the addition of 1.2 mL soybean oil on day 9, which was validated by experiment. The maximal biomass of 25.89 +/- 1.01 g/L and extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) production of 6.51 +/- 0.68 g/L were obtained, which were enhanced by 18.5% and 86%, respectively. Palmitic acid was identified to be the key component to stimulate the cell growth and EPS biosynthesis, and stearic acid was beneficial for the production of intracellular polysaccharides. Not only the biomass but also EPS production obtained in this work are the highest reported in the batch fermentation of truffle.

A novel method using Plackett-Burman design (PBD) coupled with Draper-Lin small composite design (SCD) and desirability function (DF) was developed to optimize Tuber melanosporum fermentation medium. Firstly, sucrose, yeast extract, peptone and Mg(2+) were identified to be key medium components by PBD. Secondly, in order to evaluate the relationships between responses and the identified key components, mathematical models were developed by SCD. Finally, by using DF, the responses were optimized simultaneously and the optimal concentration was located to be 73 g/L sucrose, 11 g/L yeast extract, 8 g/L peptone, and 46 mM Mg(2+). Under the identified optimal conditions, the maximal biomass, the production of extracellular (EPS) and intracellular (IPS) polysaccharides was 25.10 + or - 0.12 g/L, 3.88 + or - 0.23 g/L and 2.87 + or - 0.32 g/L, respectively, which agreed with the predicted values well. Compared with the basic medium, the biomass, the production of EPS and IPS was enhanced by 54.4%, 71.7% and 124.2%, respectively.

For the first time, a fed-batch fermentation process of Tuber melanosporum was developed for the efficient production of bioactive mycelia and Tuber polysaccharides. Each 1.67 g/L of peptone and 8.33 g/L of yeast extract were added on day 3, 6, and 9, respectively, and sucrose was fed to maintain its concentration around 35-5 g/L when its residual level decreased to 10-5 g/L. Then, the maximal biomass, the production of extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) and intracellular polysaccharides (IPS) reached 53.72 +/- 2.57 g DW/L, 7.09 +/- 0.62 and 4.43 +/- 0.21 g/L, respectively. Compared with the batch culture conducted in the enriched medium, the biomass, the production of EPS and IPS were enhanced by 55.8%, 222.3% and 103.2%, respectively. Not only the cell density but also the production of EPS and IPS were the highest ever reported in truffle fermentation, and the biomass was also the highest as ever reported in mushroom fermentation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Truffles are hypogeous ascomycetes and ectomycorrhizal fungi with unique organoleptic properties. Effects of nitrogen source and its concentration were studied during the submerged fermentation of Chinese truffle Tuber sinense. Yeast extract was identified to be the most favorable for the cell growth, and the next was peptone. The maximal dry cell weight of 19.53 ± 0.13 g/L obtained at an initial yeast extract concentration of 25 g/L was higher by 40.9% compared to that at 10 g/L. Within the range of initial peptone concentration (i.e., 10, 20, 30 and 40 g/L) as investigated, the maximal biomass and the production of extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) were obtained at 30 g/L, while 20 g/L was favorable for the production of intracellular polysaccharide (IPS). A mathematical model, which was constructed by response surface methodology combination with Box-Behnken design (BBD), was applied to study the synergic effect of glucose, yeast extract and peptone. According to the model prediction, the optimal initial concentration of glucose, yeast extract and peptone was 60, 30 and 10 g/L, respectively. The validation experiment showed the experimental values agreed with the predicted values well. The highest biomass (i.e., 23.94 ± 0.49 g/L), the production of EPS (i.e., 1.59 ± 0.06 g/L) and IPS (i.e., 1.48 ± 0.26 g/L) were obtained under the predicted optimal conditions, which were higher by 22.6%, 42.0% and 16.5% compared with the best results of one-variable-at-a-time experiments, respectively.

During the submerged fermentation of medicinal mushroom Chinese truffle Tuber sinense , there was no significant effect of metal ion on the cell growth and the production of intracellular polysaccharides, while metal ion and its concentration significantly affected the production of extracellular polysaccharides (EPS). By using the approach of “one-variable-at-a-time”, 50 mM Mg 2+ was identified to be the most favorable for EPS production, and the next was 10 mM K + . A mathematical model, constructed by response surface methodology combination with full factorial design, was applied to study the synergic effect of Mg 2+ and K + . EPS production reached its peak value of 5.86 g/L under their optimal combination of 30 mM Mg 2+ and 5 mM K + predicted by the model, which was higher by 130.7% compared with the basal fermentation medium without metal ion. The validation experiment showed the experimental values agreed with the predicted values well. EPS production obtained in this work was the highest reported in the culture of T. sinense .