Abstract
BackgroundKojic acid (5-Hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-4-pyrone) is one of the major secondary metabolites in Aspergillus oryzae. It is widely used in food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. The production cost, however, is too high for its use in many applications. Thus, an efficient and cost-effective kojic acid production process would be valuable. However, little is known about the complete set of genes for kojic acid production. Currently, kojic acid is produced from glucose. The efficient production of kojic acid using cellulose as an inexpensive substrate would help establish cost-effective kojic acid production.ResultsA kojic acid transcription factor gene over-expressing the A. oryzae strain was constructed. Three genes related to kojic acid production in this strain were transcribed in higher amounts than those found in the wild-type strain. This strain produced 26.4 g/L kojic acid from 80 g/L glucose. Furthermore, this strain was transformed with plasmid harboring 3 cellulase genes. The resultant A. oryzae strain successfully produced 0.18 g/L of kojic acid in 6 days of fermentation from the phosphoric acid swollen cellulose.ConclusionsKojic acid was produced directly from cellulose material using genetically engineered A. oryzae. Because A. oryzae has efficient protein secretion ability and secondary metabolite productivity, an A. oryzae-based cell factory could be a platform for the production of various kinds of bio-based chemicals.
Highlights
Kojic acid (5-Hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-4-pyrone) is one of the major secondary metabolites in Aspergillus oryzae
Potato dextrose agar (PDA; Nissui Pharmaceutical, Tokyo, Japan) media and GPY medium (3% glucose, 0.2% KCl, 0.1% KH2PO4, 0.05% MgSO4 · 7H2O, 1% peptone, and 0.5% yeast extract, pH 6.0) were used for the cultivation of A. oryzae
Kojic acid production from glucose using the engineered A. oryzae To confirm the effect of the over-expression of the transcription factor for kojic acid production, the kojic acid productivity from the transcription factor over-expressing strain NSPlD1/pIS1-kojR from glucose was evaluated
Summary
Kojic acid (5-Hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-4-pyrone) is one of the major secondary metabolites in Aspergillus oryzae. It is widely used in food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. An efficient and cost-effective kojic acid production process would be valuable. Kojic acid (5-Hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-4-pyrone) is widely used in the food industry, pharmaceutical industry, and in cosmetics [1,2]. Plastics have phenolic hydroxyl groups that are derived from kojic acid. Futamura et al [5] reported that the production cost of kojic acid is about $10/kg. An efficient and cost-effective kojic acid production process would be desirable
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