Production of lovastatin by a wild strain of Aspergillus terreus

Abstract

Of 68 Aspergillus terreus, three produced lovastatin 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 nitrogen and inorganic nitrogen sources, respectively. In shake-flasks with optimized medium containing 4% (w/v) lactose, 400 μg lovastatin/ml was produced, with a yield of 10 mg/g lactose. In solid substrate fermentation on extracted sweet sorghum pulp supplemented with cheese whey 1500 μg lovastatin/g dry weight was produced with a yield of 37.5 mg/g lactose.