Malic acid accumulation by Aspergillus flavus - II. Crystals and hair-like processes formed by A. flavus in a l-malic acid production medium

Yoav Peleg, Ezra Rahamim, Martin Kessel, Israel Goldberg*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Scanning electron microscopy revealed that Aspergillus flavus produced unusual crystals and hair-like processes during its l-malic acid production phase. Crystallinic dendritic aggregates were formed on the hyphae growing as pellets. The size and number of crystal aggregates increased during the fermentation in parallel with l-malic acid accumulation. The crystals (composed of calcium malate as well as small amounts of calcium succinate and calcium fumarate) were removed from the hyphae, after incubation with 6N HCl. On day 5 of the fermentation, about 9% of the total amount of l-malic acid produced was accounted for by the attached crystals. In addition to crystal formation we observed the appearance of hair-like processes during the early phase (2 days) of malic acid production only.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)76-79
Number of pages4
JournalApplied Microbiology and Biotechnology
Volume28
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1988

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