Gluconic acid production by Aspergillus terreus.

AIM: Aspergillus terreus produces itaconic acid at low pH but lovastatin and other secondary metabolites at higher pH in the fermentation. The utilization of glucose as a carbon substrate was investigated for secondary metabolite production by A. terreus. METHODS AND RESULTS: With a starting pH of 6.5, glucose was rapidly metabolized to gluconic acid by the wild-type strain and by transformants harbouring Aspergillus niger genes encoding 6-phosphofructo-1-kinases with superior kinetic and regulatory properties for bioproduction of metabolites from glucose. On exhaustion of the glucose in batch fermentations, the accumulated gluconic acid was utilized as a carbon source. CONCLUSIONS: A novel pathway of glucose catabolism was demonstrated in A. terreus, a species whose wild type is, without any strain development, capable of producing gluconic acid at high molar conversion efficiency (up to 0.7 mol mol(-1) glucose consumed). SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Aspergillus terreus is a potential novel producer organism for gluconic acid, a compound with many uses as a bulk chemical. With a new knowledge of glucose catabolism by A. terreus, fermentation strategies for secondary metabolite production can be devised with glucose feeding using feedback regulation by pH.

Evidence for the activation of 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase by cAMP-dependent protein kinase in Aspergillus niger.

The change from pentose phosphate pathway to glycolysis plays a significant role in the physiology of Aspergillus niger during the induction of citric acid accumulation. Evidence is shown for the importance of 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase in this process since it is activated by phosphorylation. By incubating a purified active form of the enzyme together with commercially available alkaline phosphatase, 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase activity was lost after a certain time suggesting that the enzyme was dephosphorylated. Inactive 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase could be isolated from the cells in the early stage of growth in a high citric acid yielding medium. The enzyme was "in vitro" activated by isolated protein kinase in the presence of cAMP, ATP and Mg2+ ions. Additional evidence for covalent phosphorylation of inactive 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase was obtained by incubating both enzymes together with labelled [gamma-32P]ATP. The activating enzyme was partially purified from A. niger mycelium.

Purification and properties of carnitine acetyltransferase from citric acid producing Aspergillus niger.

Carnitine acetyltransferase was purified from the citric acid producing A. niger mycelium with a protein band showing a relative molecular weight of 77,000 and a pH optimum of 7.3. The K(m) values for the purified enzyme for acetyl-CoA and for carnitine were 0.1 mM and 1 mM, respectively. Carnitine acetyltransferase was located both in the mitochondria and in the cytosol. Both mitochondrial and cytosolic enzyme were purified using ammonium sulfate precipitation, Mono Q and Superose 12 separation. Regarding the localization, except for maximum velocity, there were no differences observed in substrate specificity and inhibition. Inhibition of the enzyme with micromolar concentrations of Cu2+ could contribute to a greater citric acid biosynthesis. Carnitine acetyltransferase can be considered as an enzyme necessary for the transport of acetyl groups through mitochondrial membrane in both directions.

Activation of plasma membrane H+-ATPase by ammonium ions in Aspergillus niger.

The addition of ammonium ions to Aspergillus niger cells originally growing on another nitrogen source resulted in rapid medium acidification. The addition of glucose or other fermentable sugars to the mycelium growing on glycerol did not have the same effect. The enzyme responsible for acidification seems to be plasma membrane H+-ATPase, which is most probably triggered by phosphorylation. Using specific activators and inhibitors, we tried to figure out which signalling pathway is involved in the process. No activation of H+-ATPase could be detected in the presence of diacylglycerol and other activators of protein kinase C, indicating that the stimulus is transmitted by another signalling chain. In the presence of inhibitors known to suppress the phosphatidyl-inositol signalling pathway, such as neomycin, compound 48/80 and calmidazolium, no increased H+-ATPase activity could be detected after the addition of ammonium ions. However, some tested inhibitors of the cAMP signalling pathway could not prevent activation of the enzyme by the stimulant. These results support the model in which ammonium-induced activation of proton extrusion in A. niger is mediated via the phosphatidyl-inositol signalling pathway, involving Ca2+/calmoduline-dependent protein kinase but not protein kinase C.

Stress mediated changes in expression of the pkaC gene, encoding the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, in Aspergillus niger.

The transcriptional regulation of the pkaC gene, encoding the catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase from Aspergillus niger, was analysed under different environmental conditions. Quantitative determination of pkaC transcript showed a significant decrease in concentration of specific mRNA immediately after a temperature, hypoosmotic and hyperosmotic shock followed by stimulated synthesis. The amount of pkaC mRNA as well as PKA enzymatic activity steadily decreased during the initial phase of growth in 15% sucrose medium while a slight increase was observed at the time of a change in morphology from bulbous cells to filamentous growth. Transcriptional alternation might be mediated by multiple putative stress elements in the promoter region of pkaC gene.

A spontaneous change in the intracellular cyclic AMP level in Aspergillus niger is influenced by the sucrose concentration in the medium and by light.

A spontaneous rise in intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP) levels was observed in the early stages of Aspergillus niger growth under conditions yielding large amounts of citric acid. The amount of cAMP formed was found to depend on the initial concentration of sucrose in the medium. Under higher-sucrose conditions, the cAMP peak appeared earlier and was higher, while in lower-sucrose media a flattened peak was observed later in fermentation. Since in media with higher concentrations of sucrose intracellular citric acid starts to accumulate earlier and more rapidly, cAMP synthesis may be triggered by intracellular acidification, which is caused by the dissociation of citric acid. No spontaneous increase in cAMP concentrations could be detected when the cells were grown in continuously illuminated cultures, suggesting that A. niger phosphodiesterase (PDE) is photoregulated. More evidence for the activation of PDE by light was obtained from morphological studies under light and dark conditions in the presence of cAMP or N6,O2'-dibutyryl cAMP, and this idea was additionally supported by experiments in which PDE inhibitors were tested.

Sudden substrate dilution induces a higher rate of citric acid production by Aspergillus niger.

On the basis of the present knowledge of Aspergillus niger metabolism during citric acid fermentation, an idea on how to improve the process was formed. Initially, a higher sucrose concentration was used for the germination of spores, which caused a higher intracellular level of the osmoregulator, glycerol, to be present. When citric acid started to be excreted into the medium, the substrate was suddenly diluted. Optimization of this procedure resulted in a nearly tripled volumetric rate (grams per liter per hour) of acid production, while the overall fermentation time was halved compared with the usual batch process. Yet, a characteristic delay was observed at the start of the acid excretion after the dilution. Hypo-osmotic shock caused a prominent elevation of intracellular cyclic AMP levels. Simultaneously, the specific activity of 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase increased significantly, probably due to phosphorylation of the protein molecule by cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase. Specific 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase activity was much higher in the treated than in the normally growing mycelium. The metabolic flow through glycolysis was expected to be higher, which should contribute to a higher volumetric rate of acid production.