PNNL-13501 - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Summary and Conclusions
We demonstrated that higher filamentous fungi can
produce organic acids and solvents from corn glucose.
Half of the strains tested produced organic acids and
solvents and can grow in low pH environments (some as
low as 2 or 3).
Most of the cultures screened reached a stable pH value
by day 15 of testing. Measurable levels of desired acids
and solvents are present by the midpoint of testing, and
the pattern of increased production, decreased production,
or no change in production varied among the different
fungal strains tested. The fungal strains used for this
screening were naive regarding conditioning to higher
levels of glucose. Past studies have shown that
preconditioning of fungal strains to the contaminant of
interest can increase their efficiency in degrading the
contaminant. Therefore, preconditioning to higher
concentrations of glucose could increase production of
desired compounds.
Reference
Arora DK, RP Elander, and KG Mukerj, Eds. 1992.
Fungal Biotechnology. Marcel Dekker, New York.
Biosciences and Biotechnology 75