Dynamics of biomass accumulation by Aronia melanocarpa cells in liquid culture

¹ Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Food Technologies, Bulgaria
² Laboratory of Cell Biosystems, Stephan Angelov Institute of Microbiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Plovdiv, Bulgaria (V.G.: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )
³ Department of Analytical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, University of Food Technologies, Bulgaria

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

Cellular agriculture is an emerging field of biotechnology that aims to produce foods and other agricultural products directly from cultured cells, offering a sustainable alternative to traditional farming. In plant cell culture systems, the avoidance of herbicide application is crucial. Accordingly, we present results from a plant cell culture system optimized through adaptation with natural growth regulators. In this work, growth dynamics and consumption of key nutrients (phosphate, ammonium, and nitrate ions) by Aronia cells, grown under submerged conditions, have been investigated. The accumulation of secondary metabolites was monitored by analyzing changes in total phenolic content and antioxidant activity. The culture accumulated a maximum biomass of 7.83 ± 0.79 g/L (dry weight) on the 12th day. Our study demonstrates that by using natural growth regulators for the cultivation of Aronia cell suspension cultures, it was plausible to produce a high amount of cell biomass with increased nutritional value. The results can be used as a base point for the development of sustainable biotechnology processes for Aronia biomass production.