Abstract
The major sources of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10 ) used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries are generally synthesized from bacteria such as Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Paracoccus
denitrificans, Rhodobacter sphaeroides, and Rhodospirillum rubrum, but the yields of CoQ10
obtained from these bacteria have not been enough for its demand. In order to satisfy the
need of CoQ10 , the new potential CoQ10 producing bacteria have to be obtained. In this study,
various parts (i.e. flower, fruit, and root) of plants such as grape, pineapple, orchid, sleep
plant, apple, krachai, hibiscus, cogon grass and nut grass, etc., were used for isolation and
screening of CoQ10 producing bacteria. From the screening results obtained by using high
performance liquid chromatography, 29 isolates from 65 isolates can produce CoQ10 in the
range of 144 to 1,536 µg/g of dried sample. Interestingly, the 16S rRNA gene sequencing
analysis indicated that all isolates were acetic acid bacteria including Asaia bogorensis
(9), Gluconobacter japonicus (13), Gluconobacter oxydans (3), Gluconobacter roseus (2),
Gluconobacter liquefaciens (1), and Gluconobacter thailandicus (1). The top 4 strains which
can produce CoQ10 more than 1,500 µg/g of dried sample (G. japonicus BK86-2, G. japonicus
BK81-1, A. bogorensis BD-1, and A. bogorensis BK51-2) were selected as the candidates for
CoQ10 production. The growth rate and yield of CoQ10 of each strain were monitored every
24 h for 120 h in order to obtain the optimum condition for CoQ10 production. The highest
yield of CoQ10 about 2,169±68 µg/g of dried sample was obtained from G. japonicus BK81-1
after culturing at 30oC in Glucose-yeast-peptone medium (GYP) for 96 h.
