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Euglena gracilis, a photosynthetic protist, produces protein, unsaturated fatty acids, wax esters, and a unique β-1,3-glucan called paramylon, along with other valuable compounds. The cell composition of E. gracilis was investigated in this study to understand how light and organic carbon (photo-, mixo- and heterotrophic conditions) affected growth and cell composition (especially lipids). Comparisons were primarily carried out in cultures grown at 23 °C, but the effect of growth at higher temperatures (27 or 30 °C) was also considered. Specific growth rates were slightly lower when E. gracilis was grown on glucose in either heterotrophic or mixotrophic conditions than when grown photoautotrophically, although the duration of exponential growth was longer. Temperature determined the rate of exponential growth in all cultures, but not the linear growth rate during light-limited growth in phototrophic conditions. Temperature had less effect on cell composition. Although E. gracilis was not expected to store large amounts of paramylon when grown phototrophically, we observed that phototrophic cells could contain up to 50% paramylon. These cells contained up to 33% protein and less than 20% lipophilic compounds, as expected. The biomass contained about 8% fatty acids (measured as fatty acid methyl esters), most of which were unsaturated. The fatty acid content of cells grown in mixotrophic conditions was similar to that observed in phototrophic cells, but was lower in cells grown heterotrophically. Heterotrophic cells contained less unsaturated fatty acids than phototrophic or mixotrophic cells. α-Linolenic acid was present at 5 to 18 mg g-1 dry biomass in cells grown in the presence of light, but at < 0.5 mg g-1 biomass in cells grown in the dark. Eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids were detected at 1 to 5 mg g-1 biomass. Light was also important for the production of vitamin E and phytol.

Background Bioconversion of d -galacturonic acid to galactaric (mucic) acid has previously been carried out in small scale (50–1000 mL) cultures, which produce tens of grams of galactaric acid. To obtain larger amounts of biologically produced galactaric acid, the process needed to be scaled up using a readily available technical substrate. Food grade pectin was selected as a readily available source of d -galacturonic acid for conversion to galactaric acid. Results We demonstrated that the process using Trichoderma reesei QM6a Δ gar1 udh can be scaled up from 1 L to 10 and 250 L, replacing pure d -galacturonic acid with commercially available pectin. T. reesei produced 18 g L −1 galactaric acid from food-grade pectin (yield 1.00 g [g  d -galacturonate consumed] −1 ) when grown at 1 L scale, 21 g L −1 galactaric acid (yield 1.11 g [g  d -galacturonate consumed] −1 ) when grown at 10 L scale and 14 g L −1 galactaric acid (yield 0.77 g [g  d -galacturonate consumed] −1 ) when grown at 250 L scale. Initial production rates were similar to those observed in 500 mL cultures with pure d -galacturonate as substrate. Approximately 2.8 kg galactaric acid was precipitated from the 250 L culture, representing a recovery of 77% of the galactaric acid in the supernatant. In addition to scaling up, we also demonstrated that the process could be scaled down to 4 mL for screening of production strains in 24-well plate format. Production of galactaric acid from pectin was assessed for three strains expressing uronate dehydrogenase under alternative promoters and up to 11 g L −1 galactaric acid were produced in the batch process. Conclusions The process of producing galactaric acid by bioconversion with T. reesei was demonstrated to be equally efficient using pectin as it was with d -galacturonic acid. The 24-well plate batch process will be useful screening new constructs, but cannot replace process optimisation in bioreactors. Scaling up to 250 L demonstrated good reproducibility with the smaller scale but there was a loss in yield at 250 L which indicated that total biomass extraction and more efficient DSP would both be needed for a large scale process.

Various marine fungi have been shown to produce interesting, bioactive compounds, but scaling up the production of these compounds can be challenging, particularly because little is generally known about how the producing organisms grow. Here we assessed the suitability of using 100-well BioScreen plates or 96-well plates incubated in a robot hotel to cultivate eight filamentous marine fungi, six sporulating and two non-sporulating, to obtain data on growth and substrate (glucose, xylose, galactose or glycerol) utilisation in a high throughput manner. All eight fungi grew in both cultivation systems, but growth was more variable and with more noise in the data in the Cytomat plate hotel than in the BioScreen. Specific growth rates between 0.01 (no added substrate) and 0.07 h.sup.-1 were measured for strains growing in the BioScreen and between 0.01 and 0.27 h.sup.-1 for strains in the plate hotel. Three strains, Dendryphiella salina LF304, Penicillium chrysogenum KF657 and Penicillium pinophilum LF458, consistently had higher specific growth rates on glucose and xylose in the plate hotel than in the BioScreen, but otherwise results were similar in the two systems. However, because of the noise in data from the plate hotel, the data obtained from it could only be used to distinguish between substrates which did or did not support growth, whereas data from BioScreen also provided information on substrate preference. Glucose was the preferred substrate for all strains, followed by xylose and galactose. Five strains also grew on glycerol. Therefore it was important to minimise the amount of glycerol introduced with the inoculum to avoid misinterpreting the results for growth on poor substrates. We concluded that both systems could provide physiological data with filamentous fungi, provided sufficient replicates are included in the measurements.

Microbial lipids are a potential source of bio- or renewable diesel and the red yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides is interesting not only because it can accumulate over 50% of its dry biomass as lipid, but also because it utilises both five and six carbon carbohydrates, which are present in plant biomass hydrolysates. R. toruloides was grown in batch and fed-batch cultures in 0.5 L bioreactors at pH 4 in chemically defined, nitrogen restricted (C/N 40 to 100) media containing glucose, xylose, arabinose, or all three carbohydrates as carbon source. Lipid was extracted from the biomass using chloroform-methanol, measured gravimetrically and analysed by GC. Lipid production was most efficient with glucose (up to 25 g lipid L(-1), 48 to 75% lipid in the biomass, at up to 0.21 g lipid L(-1) h(-1)) as the sole carbon source, but high lipid concentrations were also produced from xylose (36 to 45% lipid in biomass). Lipid production was low (15-19% lipid in biomass) with arabinose as sole carbon source and was lower than expected (30% lipid in biomass) when glucose, xylose and arabinose were provided simultaneously. The presence of arabinose and/or xylose in the medium increased the proportion of palmitic and linoleic acid and reduced the proportion of oleic acid in the fatty acids, compared to glucose-grown cells. High cell densities were obtained in both batch (37 g L(-1), with 49% lipid in the biomass) and fed-batch (35 to 47 g L(-1), with 50 to 75% lipid in the biomass) cultures. The highest proportion of lipid in the biomass was observed in cultures given nitrogen during the batch phase but none with the feed. However, carbohydrate consumption was incomplete when the feed did not contain nitrogen and the highest total lipid and best substrate consumption were observed in cultures which received a constant low nitrogen supply. Lipid production in R. toruloides was lower from arabinose and mixed carbohydrates than from glucose or xylose. Although high biomass and lipid production were achieved in both batch and fed-batch cultures with glucose as carbon source, for lipid production from mixtures of carbohydrates fed-batch cultivation was preferable. Constant feeding was better than intermittent feeding. The feeding strategy did not affect the relative proportion of different fatty acids in the lipid, but the presence of C5 sugars did.

Background Two marine fungi, a Trichoderma sp. and a Coniochaeta sp., which can grow on d -galacturonic acid and pectin, were selected as hosts to engineer for mucic acid production, assessing the suitability of marine fungi for production of platform chemicals. The pathway for biotechnologcial production of mucic (galactaric) acid from d -galacturonic acid is simple and requires minimal modification of the genome, optimally one deletion and one insertion. d -Galacturonic acid, the main component of pectin, is a potential substrate for bioconversion, since pectin-rich waste is abundant. Results Trichoderma sp. LF328 and Coniochaeta sp . MF729 were engineered using CRISPR-Cas9 to oxidize d -galacturonic acid to mucic acid, disrupting the endogenous pathway for d -galacturonic acid catabolism when inserting a gene encoding bacterial uronate dehydrogenase. The uronate dehydrogenase was expressed under control of a synthetic expression system, which fucntioned in both marine strains. The marine Trichoderma transformants produced 25 g L −1 mucic acid from d -galacturonic acid in equimolar amounts: the yield was 1.0 to 1.1 g mucic acid [g d -galacturonic acid utilized] −1 . d -Xylose and lactose were the preferred co-substrates. The engineered marine Trichoderma sp. was more productive than the best Trichoderma reesei strain (D-161646) described in the literature to date, that had been engineered to produce mucic acid. With marine Coniochaeta transformants, d -glucose was the preferred co-substrate, but the highest yield was 0.82 g g −1 : a portion of d -galacturonic acid was still metabolized. Coniochaeta sp. transformants produced adequate pectinases to produce mucic acid from pectin, but Trichoderma sp. transformants did not. Conclusions Both marine species were successfully engineered using CRISPR-Cas9 and the synthetic expression system was functional in both species. Although Coniochaeta sp. transformants produced mucic acid directly from pectin, the metabolism of d -galacturonic acid was not completely disrupted and mucic acid amounts were low. The d -galacturonic pathway was completely disrupted in the transformants of the marine Trichoderma sp., which produced more mucic acid than a previously constructed T. reesei mucic acid producing strain, when grown under similar conditions. This demonstrated that marine fungi may be useful as production organisms, not only for native enzymes or bioactive compounds, but also for other compounds.

Background The filamentous fungus Thermothelomyces heterothallica C1 has been developed into a highly productive protein production system for heterologous proteins like antibodies and vaccine candidates. While it is capable of secreting over 120 g/l of its native enzymes, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been produced at titers exceeding 20 g/l, and strains engineered to produce human-type N-glycan structures have been developed. However, significant variability in mAb productivity and reduced production levels in glycoengineered strains limit the use of C1 as a widespread production host in the pharmaceutical industry. To address these issues, transcriptome analysis was conducted on strains producing five different mAbs with varying production efficiencies, as well as on mAb-producing strains with native and glycoengineered N-glycans. Genes related to protein folding and secretion, which are regulated in response to mAb production and glycoengineering, were over-expressed in a glycoengineered mAb producing C1 strain. In addition, genes identified based on previously described functions in the secretory pathway, including counterparts of human origin, were included in the study. Results Transcriptome analysis revealed that the mAb heavy and light chains were among the most abundantly expressed transcripts, indicating that production bottlenecks occur after transcription. Genes associated with protein folding, quality control, glycosylation, and transport within the secretory pathway were upregulated in the mAb-producing strains. This upregulation was more pronounced in strains with low mAb yields and in glycoengineered strains. The over-expression of 10 genes ( bet1 , dnaj -type gene, dpm1 , ero1 , erv46 , human calreticulin, human cypb , human mzb1 , pmr1 , and UDP-galactose transporter), each playing distinct roles in the secretory pathway, enhanced mAb production in glycoengineered C1 strains from 1.5- to 2.5-fold. Conclusions Through a comprehensive analysis of transcriptome data from C1 strains producing various monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and an extensive literature search, several factors related to protein folding and secretion were identified as potential targets for enhancing mAb production. The over-expression of some of these genes in glycoengineered C1 strains led to improvement in mAb production, with some genes enhancing mAb yields by 2.5-fold.

Scopularide A is a promising potent anticancer lipopeptide isolated from a marine derived Scopulariopsis brevicaulis strain. The compound consists of a reduced carbon chain (3-hydroxy-methyldecanoyl) attached to five amino acids (glycine, l-valine, d-leucine, l-alanine, and l-phenylalanine). Using the newly sequenced S. brevicaulis genome we were able to identify the putative biosynthetic gene cluster using genetic information from the structurally related emericellamide A from Aspergillus nidulans and W493-B from Fusarium pseudograminearum. The scopularide A gene cluster includes a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS1), a polyketide synthase (PKS2), a CoA ligase, an acyltransferase, and a transcription factor. Homologous recombination was low in S. brevicaulis so the local transcription factor was integrated randomly under a constitutive promoter, which led to a three to four-fold increase in scopularide A production. This indirectly verifies the identity of the proposed biosynthetic gene cluster.

Mucic acid, a diacid with potential use in the food, cosmetic, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, can be produced by microbial conversion of D-galacturonic acid, which is abundant in pectin. Using the ambr®250 bioreactor system, we found that a recently generated transformant (D-221704, formerly referred to as T2) of a marine Trichoderma species produced up to 53 g L−1 mucic acid in glucose-limited fed-batch culture with D-galacturonic acid in the feed at pH 4, with a yield of 0.99 g mucic acid per g D-galacturonic acid consumed. Yeast extract was not essential for high production, but increased the initial production rate. Reducing the amount of glucose as the co-substrate reduced the amount of mucic acid produced to 31 g L−1. Mucic acid could also be produced at pH values less than 4.0 (3.5 and 3.0), but the amount produced was less than at pH 4.0. Furthermore, the yield of mucic acid on D-galacturonic acid at the end of the cultivations (0.5 to 0.7 g g−1) at these low pH levels suggested that recovery may be more difficult at lower pH on account of the high level of crystal formation. Another strain engineered to produce mucic acid, Trichoderma reesei D-161646, produced only 31 g L−1 mucic acid under the conditions used with D-221704.Key pointsTrichoderma D-221704 produced 53 g L−1 mucic acid in fed batch culture at pH 4.0Yeast extract was beneficial, but not essential for good mucic acid productionThe ambr®250 gave good, reproducible fed-batch cultivations with Trichoderma sp.

Increased interest in marine resources has led to increased screening of marine fungi for novel bioactive compounds and considerable effort is being invested in discovering these metabolites. For compound discovery, small-scale cultures are adequate, but agitated bioreactors are desirable for larger-scale production. Calcarisporium sp. KF525 has recently been described to produce calcaride A, a cyclic polyester with antibiotic activity, in agitated flasks. Here, we describe improvements in the production of calcaride A in both flasks (13-fold improvement) and stirred bioreactors (200-fold improvement). Production of calcaride A in bioreactors was initially substantially lower than in shaken flasks. The cultivation pH (reduced from 6.8 to <5.4), carbon source (sucrose replacing glucose), C/N ratio and nature of mycelial growth (pellets or filaments) were important in improving calcaride A production. Up to 4.5 mg·g−1 biomass (85 mg·L−1) calcaride A were produced in the bioreactor, which was only slightly less than in shaken flasks (14 mg·g−1, 100 mg·L−1). The results demonstrate that a scalable process for calcaride A production could be developed using an iterative approach with flasks and bioreactors.

Background Growth rate is a major determinant of intracellular function. However its effects can only be properly dissected with technically demanding chemostat cultivations in which it can be controlled. Recent work on Saccharomyces cerevisiae chemostat cultivations provided the first analysis on genome wide effects of growth rate. In this work we study the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei ( Hypocrea jecorina ) that is an industrial protein production host known for its exceptional protein secretion capability. Interestingly, it exhibits a low growth rate protein production phenotype. Results We have used transcriptomics and proteomics to study the effect of growth rate and cell density on protein production in chemostat cultivations of T. reesei . Use of chemostat allowed control of growth rate and exact estimation of the extracellular specific protein production rate (SPPR). We find that major biosynthetic activities are all negatively correlated with SPPR. We also find that expression of many genes of secreted proteins and secondary metabolism, as well as various lineage specific, mostly unknown genes are positively correlated with SPPR. Finally, we enumerate possible regulators and regulatory mechanisms, arising from the data, for this response. Conclusions Based on these results it appears that in low growth rate protein production energy is very efficiently used primarly for protein production. Also, we propose that flux through early glycolysis or the TCA cycle is a more fundamental determining factor than growth rate for low growth rate protein production and we propose a novel eukaryotic response to this i.e. the lineage specific response (LSR).