Effects of lactose and glucose on production of itaconic acid and lovastatin by Aspergillus terreus ATCC 20542

Fermentation products of Aspergillus terreus ATCC 20542 (a parent strain for lovastatin production) were collected, and the coexistence of itaconic acid (IA) with lovastatin was confirmed in this study. Using a lactose-based medium (LBM), lovastatin production was 873 mg/l on day 10, but IA production was only 22–28 mg/l during the cultures. When lactose in LBM was simply replaced with glucose, IA production was markedly enhanced by 20-fold (491 mg/l on day 5), which showed a growth-associated pattern. The findings indicated that the carbon source used (glucose or lactose) controlled the biosynthetic pathway. The net yield of lovastatin production when using lactose was calculated to be 25.1 mg/g (5.1-fold) in comparison with when using glucose in the cultures. Furthermore, lovastatin production was further increased by 9.2% when IA (0.5 g/l) was added to LBM. When IA was added at 5 g/l, the fermentation broth turned dark-brown, and lovastatin production was reduced by 18.0%. Hence, these two metabolites (IA and lovastatin) produced by the fungus might be related.