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The forced activation of asexual conidiation in Aspergillus niger simplifies bioproduction

Summary

Researchers developed a new method to simplify the production of L-malic acid using genetically modified Aspergillus niger fungi. Instead of growing spores on solid plates—a time-consuming and labor-intensive process—they engineered the fungi to produce spores directly in liquid medium controlled by adding xylose. This simplified approach maintains the fungi’s ability to produce high levels of L-malic acid while significantly reducing costs and labor requirements for industrial production.

Background

Aspergillus niger is an efficient cell factory for organic acid production, particularly L-malic acid. However, traditional spore collection methods for inoculation are labor-intensive and resource-consuming, requiring cultivation on solid media which consumes significant time, cost, and labor.

Objective

To develop a simplified submerged conidiation strategy by forcibly activating the brlA gene (key regulator of asexual conidiation) using a xylose-inducible promoter, enabling efficient spore collection in liquid culture for industrial organic acid production.

Results

The brlA_xylP strain produced significant amounts of asexual conidia (>7.1 × 10^6/mL) in liquid xylose medium with upregulation of conidiation-related genes. Importantly, the submerged conidiation approach preserved A. niger’s capacity for L-malic acid production, achieving 57.9 g/L compared to 67.0 g/L in the control strain.

Conclusion

The submerged conidiation strategy successfully streamlines spore preparation for industrial organic acid production by eliminating the need for solid media cultivation. This approach reduces labor and material costs while maintaining the high-yield potential of A. niger as a cellular platform for biosynthesis.
  • Published in:Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology,
  • Study Type:Experimental Research,
  • Source: PMID: 38496318, DOI: 10.1016/j.synbio.2024.02.007
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