Metabolic engineering of Rhizopus oryzae for the production of platform chemicals.

Rhizopus oryzae is a filamentous fungus belonging to the Zygomycetes. It is among others known for its ability to produce the sustainable platform chemicals L: -(+)-lactic acid, fumaric acid, and ethanol. During glycolysis, all fermentable carbon sources are metabolized to pyruvate and subsequently distributed over the pathways leading to the formation of these products.

Production of cyanophycin in Rhizopus oryzae through the expression of a cyanophycin synthetase encoding gene.

Cyanophycin or cyanophycin granule peptide is a protein that results from non-ribosomal protein synthesis in microorganisms such as cyanobacteria. The amino acids in cyanophycin can be used as a feedstock in the production of a wide range of chemicals such as acrylonitrile, polyacrylic acid, 1,4-butanediamine, and urea. In this study, an auxotrophic mutant (Rhizopus oryzae M16) of the filamentous fungus R.