Abstract
The objective of the present study was to investigate the optimal nutritional requirements for mycelial growth and sporulation of entomopathogenic fungus Aschersonia aleyrodis Webber by orthogonal layout methods. Herein the order of effects of nutrient components on mycelial growth was tryptone > Ca(2+) > soluble starch > folacin, corresponding to the following optimal concentrations: 1.58% Soluble Starch, 3.16% Tryptone, 0.2 mmol l(-1) Ca(2+) and 0.005% Folacin. The optimal concentration of each factors for sporulation was 1.16% lactose, 0.394% tryptone, 0.4 mmol l(-1) Fe(2+) and 0.00125% VB1, and the effects of medium components on sporulation were found to be in the order lactose > VB1 > Fe(2+) > tryptone. Under the optimal culture conditions, the maximum production of mycelial growth achieved 20.05 g l(-1) after 7 days of fermentation, while the maximum spore yield reached 5.23 ×10(10) spores l(-1) after 22 days of cultivation. This is the first report on optimization of nutritional requirements and design of simplified semi-synthetic media for mycelial growth and sporulation of A. aleyrodis.