Use of sol-gel entrapment techniques for the resolution of itaconic acid biosynthetic pathway inAspergillus terreus

✍ Scribed by Eyal Bressler; Sergei Braun

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 639 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0928-0707
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00401893

✦ Synopsis

A new technique of investigation of labile metabolic pathways using immobilization of the pathway in sol-gel derived silicate matrices was demonstrated. The biosynthetic pathway of itaconic acid in AspergiZlus terreus is believed to proceed through decarboxylation of cis-aconitate catalyzed by an unstable enzyme aconitate decarboxylase, E.C. 4. I. 1.6. Stabilization of this pathway in sol-gel derived silicate matrix enabled the elucidation of the correct sequence of biosynthetic steps. The decarboxylation of cis-aconitate does not lead directly to itaconate, but rather to citraconate. The latter is then isomerized to itaconate by a previously unknown enzyme.