Pilot scale culture of the marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula for its pharmaceutically-useful natural metabolite curacin A

A Caribbean collection of Lyngbya majuscula which produces the promising antimitotic agent, curacin A, was recollected in 1993 from Curacao and adapted to laboratory culture. A variety of culture vessel configurations and conditions were examined for their effect on growth and production of curacin A. Using these partially optimized conditions, 29 strains of curacin A producing L. majuscula were evaluated for their production levels of curacin A employing an internal standard GC-MS analytical method. Five strains were more carefully characterized for their growth and curacin A production, and led to our selection of one reliable strain, '19L', for further studies. Growth and curacin A production curves were established for this strain over a 30 day growth period. This directed a scale-up culture of 640 liters of L. majuscula strain 19L in four batches of 160 L each. All four batches grew well and produced significant quantities of curacin A. In total, 215.5 g wet weight of L. majuscula tissue were produced which gave an isolated yield of 132.5 mg of curacin A.