Production of lovastatin by a wild strain of Aspergillus terreus.

摘要

Of 68 A. terreus strains, 3 produced lovastatin (a cholesterol-lowering drug) with equivalent or better yield than strain ATCC 20542 originally described for lovastatin production. Medium optimization experiments with the best isolate (TUB F-514) indicated that lactose, rapeseed meal and KNO3 were the best carbon, organic N and inorganic N sources, respectively. In shake-flasks with optimized medium containing 4 % (w/v) lactose, 400μg lovastatin/ml was produced, with a yield of 10 mg/g lactose. Insolid substrate fermentation on extracted sweet sorghum pulp supplemented with whey, 1500μg lovastatin/g DM was produced with a yield of 37.5 mg/g lactose.