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Impact of linoleic acid supplementation on lovastatin production in Aspergillus terreus cultures

  • Biotechnological Products and Process Engineering
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Abstract

This work proposes a novel approach for enhancing the yield of lovastatin in Aspergillus terreus cultures by exploiting linoleic acid-derived signalling molecules, which are potentially involved in fungal cell–cell communication. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed that production of lovastatin was enhanced up to 1.8-fold upon exogenous addition of the oxylipin precursor linoleic acid to low cell density cultures of A. terreus. Real-time PCR analysis showed that supplementation of linoleic acid also resulted in an increase in transcriptional levels of lovastatin biosynthetic genes lovB and lovF, indicating a transcriptional control of fatty acids (linoleic acid) on these genes in A. terreus. This study therefore demonstrates for the first time the potential of an oxylipin molecule as an enhancer of a fungal secondary metabolite production with positive impact for industrial exploitation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Biotechnology Research Group, Department of Molecular and Applied Biosciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, 115 New Cavendish Street, W1W 6UW, London, UK

    Flavia Sorrentino, Ipsita Roy & Tajalli Keshavarz

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  1. Flavia Sorrentino
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  2. Ipsita Roy
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  3. Tajalli Keshavarz
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Correspondence to Tajalli Keshavarz.

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Sorrentino, F., Roy, I. & Keshavarz, T. Impact of linoleic acid supplementation on lovastatin production in Aspergillus terreus cultures. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 88, 65–73 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2722-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2722-0

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