High-level production of poly (β-l-malic acid) with a new isolated Aureobasidium pullulans strain

Poly (β-l-malic acid) (PMLA) is a water-soluble polyester with many attractive properties in chemical industry and medicine development. However, the low titer of PMLA in the available producer strains limits further industrialization efforts and restricts its many potential applications. In order to solve this problem, a new strain with the distinguished high productivity of PMLA was isolated from fresh plants samples. It was characterized as the candidate of Aureobasidium pullulans based on the morphology and phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer sequences. After the optimization of culture conditions, the highest PMLA concentration (62.27 g l−1) could be achieved in the shake flask scale. In addition, the contribution of the carbon flux to exopolysaccharide (EPS) and PMLA could be regulated by the addition of CaCO3 in the medium. This high-level fermentation process was further scaled up in the 10 l benchtop fermentor with a high PMLA concentration (57.2 g l−1) and productivity (0.35 g l−1 h−1), which are the highest level in all the literature. Finally, the suitable acid hydrolysis conditions of PMLA were also investigated with regard to the production of l-malic acid, and the kinetics of PMLA acid hydrolysis was modeled to simulate the whole degradation process. The present work paved the road to produce this multifunctional biomaterial (PMLA) at industrial scale and promised one alternative method to produce l-malic acid in the future.