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Efficient Production of Polymalic Acid by a Novel Isolated Aureobasidium pullulans Using Metabolic Intermediates and Inhibitors

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Abstract

Polymalic acid (PMA) is a linear anionic polyester composed of l-malic acid monomers, which have potential applications as drug carriers, surgical suture, and biodegradable plastics. In this study, a novel strain of Aureobasidium pullulans var. melanogenum GXZ-6 was isolated and identified according to the morphological observation and deoxyribonucleic acid internal-transcribed spacer sequence analysis, and the product of PMA was characterized by FT-IR, 13C-NMR, and 1H-NMR spectra. The PMA titer of GXZ-6 reached 62.56 ± 1.18 g L−1 with productivity of 0.35 g L−1 h−1 using optimized medium with addition of metabolic intermediates (citrate and malate) and inhibitor (malonate) by batch fermentation in a 10-L fermentor. Besides that the malate for PMA synthesis in GXZ-6 might mainly come from the glyoxylate cycle, based on results, citrate, malate, malonate, and maleate increased while succinate and fumarate inhibited the production of PMA, which was different from that of other A. pullulans. This study provided a potential strain and a simple metabolic control strategy for high-titer production of PMA and shared novel information on the biosynthesis pathway of PMA in A. pullulans.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21506039, 31760452, 31560448) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province (2016GXNSFAA380140, 2015GXNSFBA139052).

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Author notes

  1. Wei Zeng, Bin Zhang and Guiguang Chen contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, Guangxi, China

    Wei Zeng, Bin Zhang, Guiguang Chen, Mengxuan Li & Zhiqun Liang

  2. College of Life Science and Technology, Guangxi University, 100 Daxue Road, Nanning, 530004, Guangxi, China

    Wei Zeng, Bin Zhang, Guiguang Chen, Mengxuan Li & Zhiqun Liang

Authors
  1. Wei Zeng
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  2. Bin Zhang
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  3. Guiguang Chen
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  5. Zhiqun Liang
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Correspondence to Zhiqun Liang.

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Zeng, W., Zhang, B., Chen, G. et al. Efficient Production of Polymalic Acid by a Novel Isolated Aureobasidium pullulans Using Metabolic Intermediates and Inhibitors. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 187, 612–627 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-018-2825-0

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