Chemical characterization of fatty acids, alkanes, n-diols and alkyl esters produced by a mixed culture of Trichoderma koningii and Penicillium janthinellum grown aerobically on undecanoic acid, potatoe dextrose and their mixture

ABSTRACT

Little is known about the mixed fungal synthesis of high-value aliphatics derived from the metabolism of simple and complex carbon substrates. Trichoderma koningii and Penicillium janthinellum were fed with undecanoic acid (UDA), potatoe dextrose broth (PDB), and their mixture. Pyrolysis Field Ionization Mass Spectrometry (Py-FIMS) together with ¹H and ¹³C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) characterized CHCl₃ soluble aliphatics in the fungal cell culture. Data from NMR and Py-FIMS analysis were complementary to each other. On average, the mixed fungal species produced mostly fatty acids (28% of total ion intensity, TII) > alkanes (2% of TII) > n-diols (2% of TII) > and alkyl esters (0.8% of TII) when fed with UDA, PDB or UDA+PDB. The cell culture accumulated aliphatics extracellularly, although most of the identified compounds accumulated intracellularly. The mixed fungal culture produced high-value chemicals from the metabolic conversion of simple and complex carbon substrates.

KEYWORDS:

• Lipids
• alcohols
• alkyl esters
• Trichoderma koningii
• Penicillium janthinellum
• undecanoic acid
• potatoe dextrose broth
• NMR and Py-FIMS

Acknowledgments

The authors thank J. Nikiforuk and B. Blackwell for the ¹H and ¹³C NMR analyses, Dr. J. Bisset and Ms. P. Shoukouhi for providing the fungal species inoculum, Dr. P. Leinweber of Rostock University for conducting the Py-FIMS analysis, E. Monreal for the preparation of figures, and Dr. S. Miller for facilitating the fluorescence microscope.

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Resources Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.