Abstract: A culture medium containing rapeseed meal was designed for prodigiosin production by Serratia marcescens. Optimizations of culture medium composition and fermentation conditions by response surface method were performed for improved production of prodigiosin. The results indicated that the optimal medium composition was composed of corn powder 10 g/L, rapeseed meal 21.7 g/L, inoculum concentration 5.5%, and zinc sulfate 0.05 g/L at an initial pH of 5.8. When the strain was cultured for 24 h in 80 mL of the medium contained in a 250 mL flask with shaking at 200 r/min, the fermented broth had the highest prodigiosin content of 11.56 g/L. This study could provide a basis for the microbial production of prodigiosin from high-temperature rapeseed meal.

Key words: Serratia marcescens, prodigiosin, rapeseed meal, response surface optimization, fermentation