<i>In situ</i> adsorption and controlled dosing of sodium dodecylsulfate enhances bacterial violacein production: Insights into kinetics, cell morphology and integrated process design

Abstract BACKGROUND Despite having immense therapeutic potential, violacein, a bacterial metabolite, lacks industrial exploration owing to low titer and compromised yields. Current study explores integrated in situ strategies for enhanced biomanufacturing of violacein. In situ strategies involve simultaneous release and recovery of metabolites from biological systems while keeping the system viable for further production. RESULTS Sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) at a preoptimized dose of 0.005% (w/v) in the broth was selected as a permeabilizing agent for elevating the release of violacein from Chromobacterium violaceum MTCC2656. SDS modulated the cell morphology which was assessed by biochemical assays and transmission electron microscopy. SP200 was selected as an adsorbent after multi‐level screening based on the requirements of in situ recovery operations. The interactions of violacein and SP200 showed pseudo‐first‐order kinetics of adsorption and were best fitted with Langmuir's adsorption isotherm. Insights from these studies were applied to design a process for in situ recovery of violacein from broth and improved the overall titers and productivity of violacein from 7.34 to 14.63 mg −1 L −1 h −1 . CONCLUSION Inducing cell permeability by appropriate dosing of surfactant and in situ adsorption emerges as a successful integrated approach for enhanced biomanufacturing of violacein due to enhanced productivity as well as ease of downstream processing. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).