Filamentous fungi in microtiter plates—an easy way to optimize itaconic acid production with Aspergillus terreus

Abstract

Itaconic acid is an important industrial building block and is produced by the filamentous fungi Aspergillus terreus. To make the optimization process more efficient, a scale-down from shake flasks to microtiter plates was performed. This resulted in comparable product formations, and 87.7 g/L itaconic acid was formed after 10 days of cultivation in the microtiter plate. The components of the minimal medium were varied independently for a media optimization. This resulted in an increase of the itaconic acid concentration by a variation of the KH2PO4 and CuSO4 concentrations. The cultivation with a higher KH2PO4 concentration in a 400-mL bioreactor showed an increase in the maximum productivity of 1.88 g/L/h, which was an increase of 74 % in comparison to the reference. Neither the phosphate concentration nor the nitrogen sources were limited at the start of the product formation. This showed that a limitation of these substances is not necessary for the itaconic acid formation.

Emerging biotechnologies for production of itaconic acid and its applications as a platform chemical

“…The theoretical yield of IA from glucose is 0.72 g g −1 glucose. Hevekerl et al [29] performed a scaledown from shake flasks to 96-well microtiter plates which resulted in comparable IA (87.7 g L −1 ) production from glucose (180 g L −1 ) after 10 days of cultivation of A. terreus DSM 23081 in microtiter plate. This can be useful for screening of IA producing strains and optimization of medium components for IA production.…”

Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the production of itaconate

“…These included e.g. the optimization of production with A. terreus (Hevekerl et al, 2014;Kuenz et al, 2012;Tevz et al, 2010), the development of processes with other natural itaconate producers such as Ustilago maydis (Carstensen et al, 2013;Klement et al, 2012;Maassen et al, 2014;Panakova et al, 2009;Voll et al, 2012), or the use of Aspergillus niger as production host Li et al, 2011Li et al, , 2012Li et al, , 2013van der Straat et al, 2013van der Straat et al, , 2014. A. niger is a highly efficient citric acid producer, reaching titers above 200 g l À 1 , but does not naturally produce itaconic acid and thus requires heterologous genes, e.g.…”

Itaconic Acid: The Surprising Role of an Industrial Compound as a Mammalian Antimicrobial Metabolite

“…For that purpose, small-scale screenings in scaled-down models, e.g., microtiter plates, have been developed to circumvent costly optimization procedures in bioreactors (39).…”