Association of colony morphology with coenzyme Q(10) production and its enhancement from Rhizobium radiobacter T6102W by addition of isopentenyl alcohol as a precursor.

Rhizobium radiobacter T6102 was morphologically purified by the aniline blue agar plates to give two distinct colonies; white smooth mucoid colony (T6102W) and blue rough colony (T6102B). The coenzyme Q(10) (CoQ(10)) was produced just by T6102W, showing 2.0 mg/g of CoQ(10) content, whereas the T6102B did not produce the CoQ(10). All of the used CoQ(10) biosynthetic precursors enhanced the CoQ(10) production by T6102W. Specifically, the supplementation of 0.75 mM isopentenyl alcohol improved the CoQ(10) concentration (19.9 mg/l) and content (2.4 mg/g) by 42% and 40%, respectively.