Yeast peptones have become a go-to fermentation nutrient in the sector of biotechnology, following the emerging interest for live biotherapeutics, recombinant proteins production, alternative proteins production, cosmetics ingredients obtained by fermentation, and the use of vegan probiotics for womens’ health benefits and anti-aging.
Highlights
- Employed as building blocks in culture media to guarantee the development of microorganisms like yeast, bacteria, and fungi.
- Used in biotechnology to produce biopharmaceuticals and recombinant proteins.
- Support the growth of lactic acid bacteria for use in probiotics.
- Frequently used in any type of laboratory experiment or research study that requires a nutrient-rich medium.
Yeast peptone composition
Yeast peptones are widely employed as building blocks in culture media to aid in the development of microorganisms like yeast, bacteria, and fungi. They offer a supply of vital elements needed for microbial growth, such as nitrogen, vitamins, and other growth factors.
Yeast peptones serve this purpose as they are a cost-effective and easily replicable nutrient or lactic acid bacteria and probiotics. Yeast peptones are traceable, and easy to use, making them an ideal type of peptone for many applications.
Yeast Peptones for Bioingredients, Food Cultures, and Probiotics Productions
Bioingredients
Microorganisms and fermentation represent an infinite source of innovation to answer key challenges of the food, feed, and health industries for years to come.
Sourcing ingredients is a key challenge for industries aiming at meeting the strict standards of food, feed and cosmetics production as well as consumers’ increasing demand for healthy products. Bioingredients producers, including animal-free alternative proteins, are facing multiple requirements in the production process such as:
- Food safety and compliance
- Nutritional value
- Sustainable sourcing
- Economic viability
By 2035 these key trends are expected to be reinforced following end-consumers’ expectations for sustainability and animal-free alternative protein ingredients.
Animal-free alternative proteins, produced based on fermentation, are projected to comprise 2,45% of global protein consumption, equating to a staggering 21 million tons 1 2.
Yeast-based nutrients represent a suitable and cost-effective solution for bioingredient producers as a rich source of amino acids, peptides, and other essential nutrients for microbial growth covering a wide range of applications in the food and feed industries.
As a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to animal-sourced products, yeast-based nutrients are a reliable solution for bioprocessing and large-scale production of bioingredients via fermentation.
Food Cultures
Food cultures are used in the food and feed industry to cultivate microorganisms needed for food fermentation processes, such as the production of a variety of cheeses, fermented beverages, and other products. A multitude of strains are produced by industrial fermentation, each requiring specific nutrients and nitrogen sources, resulting in complex production constraints.
The most common food cultures are lactic acid-producing bacteria such as Lactobacillus acidophilus or Lactobacillus plantarum, and non-lactic-producing strains such as Bifidobacterium lactis or Streptococcus thermophilus. However, these strains can often be challenging to cultivate.
Yeast peptones, with their unique and balanced composition, have proved to be key components of culture media due to their beneficial effects on different species’ growth. Yeast peptones are employed to enhance the production of a variety of different strains used for food cultures, and related products.
These include:
Probiotics
Probiotics, unlike common laboratory strains, must remain alive under conditions that are significantly more stressful than the optimized conditions they may find themselves under in the traditional microbiology laboratory. They must survive the entire production processes of fermentation, concentration, and storage. The drying stage of probiotic production, especially freeze-drying, is a particularly stressful step for probiotic microorganisms.
Yeast peptones’ ability to increase biomass, viability, and revivification makes them especially effective for the production and storage of probiotic strains. Yeast peptones have proven critical for influencing LAB viability and vitality.
By using yeast peptones one can achieve superior performance and optimized growth outcomes. Yeast peptones allow for the stabilization of processes by ensuring lower variability and balanced fermentation kinetics. This can be achieved specifically with the growth dynamics of Bifidobacterium lactis, which can be increased especially when compared to the use of other types of peptones (animal and vegetal). Yeast peptones can also improve the viability of Lactobacillus acidophilus during and after fermentation.
Yeast Peptones for Microbial Fermentation and Biopharmaceuticals Production
By targeting the microbiome for the promotion of balanced gut, innovative solutions have the potential to provide a wide range of positive health effects.
If you are looking to enter the microbiome biotherapeutics market, you will quickly realize that the anaerobic nature of the gut environment has made its inhabitants difficult to study, and even more difficult to produce reliable clinical-backed solutions to be used for real-world health applications.
Despite showing significant potential we know that there are still several challenges remaining for microbiome biotherapeutic products.
Yeast peptones are also part of the fermentation-related processes to improve the growth and productivity of yeast or other microorganisms. They are used to support the production of various biopharma products, including antibodies, antibiotics, vaccines, and vitamins.
They play a role in biotechnology to produce biopharmaceuticals and recombinant proteins. They provide nutrients to the expression host, which are typically bacteria or yeast that are employed to produce these biotherapeutic products.
The main challenge for the biotech industry is to produce enough metabolite and ease the purification of the molecule by avoiding impurities and decreasing byproducts.
Yeast Peptones for Laboratory Research and Diagnostics
Peptones are commonly used as a key building block for the formulation of ready-to-use culture media; these culture media are developed to provide an ideal environment for microorganisms to grow. Ready-to-use culture media are widely used in quality and research laboratories for the isolation, growth and characterization of a broad range of microorganisms.
As yeast peptones are highly soluble sources of nutrients, especially free amino-acids, and peptides, they can be easily incorporated into liquid and solid culture media. They can be used as alternative peptones for the detection of microbial contamination and identification of potential pathogens, in quality control procedure. Moreover, ready-to-use culture media formulated with yeast peptones are suitable for research purposes.
Yeast peptones are frequently used in many types of laboratory experiments for a variety of purposes including but not limited to:
- Microorganism characterization
- Cell cultures
- Genetic studies
- Physiological studies
- Biochemistry
Yeast Peptones for Biological Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture emphasizes the adoption of biological methods such as the use of beneficial microorganisms to improve soil and plant health. Biological methods exclude the use of genetically modified organisms, the use of synthetic fertilizers, and the use of chemical inputs such as pesticides and herbicides.
Sustainable agriculture relies on solutions that combine nontoxic biological control agents, such as microbial inoculants, and cost-effectiveness. Derived from natural materials of non-animal and non-GM origin, yeast-based nutrients used for microbial inoculant production directly influence a microorganism’s ability to survive in either soil or on the surface of plants.
The use of yeast-based nutrients as reliable nitrogen sources to produce bacteria (such as Bacillus spp, Pseudomonas spp, Bradyrhizobium spp.) and fungi (like Trichoderma spp.) is the better solution for sustainable agriculture.
Yeast-based ingredients such as yeast peptones allow one to be able to better grow microorganisms that can help to protect crops, using biocontrol solutions including:
- Biostimulants
- Biopesticides
- Biofertilizers
Yeast Peptones for Bulk Fermentation Chemicals
Yeast peptones support the growth of microorganisms used in fermentation processes for biopolymers, which are used to produce renewable chemicals.
They also increase metabolite productivity for other fermentation-related processes which can be used to make chemicals including:
- Biofuels
- Bio-lubricants
- Biodegradable plastics
- Organic acids
- Lactic acids
A Nutrient Source for the Future
Yeast peptones have a wide range of uses in the biotech industry from the food and feed sector to renewable industries, they enhance the growth and activity of microorganisms allowing for more robust and consistent products.
The specific application of yeast peptones varies depending on the industry and the specific types of microorganisms one is trying to cultivate. Nevertheless, the use of these special peptones is growing and allowing producers to make more inclusive animal and allergen-free products to reach the market to benefit more people.
New and innovative ways of using yeast peptones are being discovered every day including new products such as lab-grown meat, alternative meat production, and live biotherapeutics.
At Procelys by Lesaffre, we strive to always stay ahead of the market trends. We have a team dedicated to innovation that is identifying future challenges and working closely with customers to anticipate the evolution of the market and new uses for yeast peptones as well as developing fit-for-purpose solutions.
