Fathoming Aspergillus oryzae metabolomes in formulated growth matrices

Abstract

The stochasticity of Aspergillus oryzae (Trivially: the koji mold) pan-metabolomes commensurate with its ubiquitously distributed landscapes, i.e. growth matrices have been seemed uncharted since its food fermentative systems are mostly being investigated. In this review, we explicitly have discussed the likely tendencies of A. oryzae metabolomes pertaining to its growth milieu formulated with substrate matrices of varying nature, composition, texture, and associated physicochemical parameters. We envisaged typical food matrices, namely, meju, koji, and moromi as the semi-natural cultivation models toward delineating the metabolomic patterns of the koji mold, which synergistically influences the organoleptic and functional properties of the end products. Further, we highlighted how tailored conditions in sub-natural growth matrices, i.e. synthetic cultivation media blends, inducers, and growth surfaces, may influence A. oryzae metabolomes and targeted phenotypes. In general, the sequential or synchronous growth of A. oryzae on formulated matrices results in a number of metabolic tradeoffs with its immediate microenvironment influencing its adaptive and regulatory metabolomes. In broader context, evaluating the metabolic plasticity of A. oryzae relative to the tractable variables in formulated growth matrices might help approximate its growth and metabolism in the more complex natural matrices and environs. These approaches may considerably help in the design and manipulation of hybrid cultivation systems towards the efficient harnessing of commercial molds.

Keywords:

• Koji mold
• metabolites
• cultivation matrices
• textures
• physicochemical parameters
• phenotypes

Disclosure statement

The authors and the sponsors report no declaration of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (Grant no. 2016M3A9A5923160) and the Strategic Initiative for Microbiomes in Agriculture and Food, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Republic of Korea as part of the (multi-ministerial) Genome Technology to Business Translation Program (Grant no. 918011–04-1-HD020).