Skip to main content

MINI REVIEW article

Front. Fungal Biol.
Sec. Fungal Physiology and Metabolism
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/ffunb.2024.1526568

Advancements in lipid production research using the koji-mold Aspergillus oryzae and future outlook

Provisionally accepted
Koichi Tamano Koichi Tamano *
  • Hokkaido Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sapporo, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Research on enhancing the production of lipids, particularly polyunsaturated fatty acids that are considered important for health, has focused on improvement of metabolism as well as heterologous expression of biosynthetic genes in the oleaginous fungus Aspergillus oryzae. To date, the productivity and production yield of free fatty acids have been enhanced by 10-fold to 90-fold via improvements in metabolism and optimization of culture conditions. Moreover, the productivity of ester-type fatty acids present in triacylglycerols could be enhanced via metabolic improvement. Culturing A. oryzae in a liquid medium supplemented with non-ionic surfactants could also lead to the effective release of free fatty acids from the cells. The current review highlights the advancements made in this field so far and discusses the future outlook for research on lipid production using A. oryzae. I hope the contents are useful for researchers in this field to consider the strategy of increasing production of various valuable metabolites as well as lipids in A. oryzae.

    Keywords: Aspergillus oryzae, filamentous fungus, Lipid production, free fatty acid, ester-type fatty acid, Metabolic improvement, gene knockout, Gene overexpression

    Received: 11 Nov 2024; Accepted: 26 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tamano. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Koichi Tamano, Hokkaido Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sapporo, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.