Abstract
BackgroundUstilaginaceae (belonging to the smut fungi) are commonly known for their plant pathogenicity. Although these microbes lead to yield reduction of cereal production, they can also have an economically positive side. Ustilaginaceae naturally produce a versatile range of value-added chemicals with potential applications in the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industry.ResultsIn this study 68 Ustilaginaceae of 13 species were screened for the production of organic acids, polyols, and glycolipids from glucose to characterize their biodiversity and identify potential novel strains for biocatalysis of these valuable chemicals. Ustilago cynodontis, Ustilago maydis, Ustilago avenae, and Sporisorium exsertum were identified as promising production organisms for itaconate, malate, succinate, and erythritol, respectively. The influence of buffer concentration (pH) on acid production was investigated. Selected strains with best itaconate and malate production were characterized in more detail in bioreactor experiments obtaining total acid concentrations of up to 47 ± 1 g L−1.ConclusionThe identification and detailed characterization of these producers of valuable chemicals highlights the potential of these unicellular smut fungi for industrial applications and is a further step towards the biotechnological utilization of Ustilaginaceae.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40694-014-0002-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Ustilaginaceae are commonly known for their plant pathogenicity
U. cynodontis 2217 was identified as the best itaconate producer with 3.3 ± 0.1 g L−1 itaconate and a yield of 0.1 ± 0.0 gita gg−l1c (Figure 1A)
The results showed that the product spectrum between the U. maydis strains remained the same, whereas the concentrations of these products varied considerably, for instance 97% between the best and the worst itaconate producer
Summary
Ustilaginaceae (belonging to the smut fungi) are commonly known for their plant pathogenicity. There are these plant diseases lead to a considerable yield reduction of cereal production, smut fungi have an economically positive side They naturally produce a wide range of value-added chemicals (e.g. secondary metabolites, TCA cycle intermediates) with growing biotechnological interest. Succinic acid is utilized as a precursor to pharmaceutical ingredients, such as additives, solvents, and polymers, and as a food additive and dietary supplement [13] Another category of metabolites produced by smut fungi contains extracellular glycolipids, such as mannosylerythritol lipids (mel) and ustilagic acid (ua) [14,15,16]. These lipids have biosurfactant properties and can be used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food applications and are known for their strong fungicidal activity on many species [5]
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