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

• DOI: 10.1007/s00253-014-5743-2
• Publication Date: 2014-04-15T09:22:25Z
• Authors: Antje Hevekerl; Anja Kuenz; Klaus-Dieter Vorlop
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; Aspergillus; Bioreactors; Nitrogen; Sulfates; Fermentation; Fungi; Succinates; Biotechnology; Culture Media; Phosphates

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.