Potent Probiotic Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae TBRC 3616: Production Development for Food and Feed Applications

TL;DR

This study develops a production process for a probiotic yeast strain, S. cerevisiae TBRC 3616, suitable for food and feed applications.

Contribution

A novel production framework for S. cerevisiae TBRC 3616 with optimized fermentation and freeze-drying methods is developed.

Findings

The strain exhibited key probiotic traits like acid and bile salt tolerance, cell adhesion, and antipathogen activity.

Fed-batch fermentation achieved a high yeast titer of 12.14 ± 0.03 log CFU L–1.

Freeze-drying with maltodextrin improved cell viability fourfold compared to the control.

Abstract

The global demand for probiotics has been increasing
over the past
few decades. Of these, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has attracted growing interest for use in functional foods and feed
supplements due to its probiotic potential, nutritional value, and
well-documented safety. For industrial applications, functional characterization,
safety assessment, and robust production processes are key prerequisites.
This study evaluated the probiotic properties and production potential
of the S. cerevisiae strain TBRC 3616,
isolated from decaying leaves in a tropical ecosystem in Thailand.
The strain exhibited key probiotic traits, including acid and bile
salt tolerance, Caco-2 cell adhesion, antipathogen activity, antioxidant
capacity, and enzyme activities (catalase, protease, and esterase).
The yeast exhibited no hemolytic activity and was not susceptible
to the tested antibiotics, except colistin at 50 μg. High-cell-density
cultivation was achieved using the developed fed-batch fermentation,
resulting in a high yeast titer of 12.14 ± 0.03 log CFU L–1, and a cell production rate of 10.52 ± 0.02
log CFU L–1 h–1. Furthermore,
downstream processing efficiency was markedly enhanced by implementing
an optimized freeze-drying protocol using 5% (w/v) maltodextrin, resulting
in a 4-fold increase in cell viability compared to the control. These
findings provide a production framework that supports the potential
for scale-up of S. cerevisiae TBRC
3616 as a probiotic yeast for future applications.

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