Lactic acid production by Rhizopus oryzae transformants with modified lactate dehydrogenase activity

Rhizopus oryzae is capable of producing high levels of lactic acid by the fermentation of glucose. Yields typically vary over 60-80%, with the remaining glucose diverted primarily into ethanol fermentation. The goal of this work was to increase lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, so lactic acid fermentation could more effectively compete for available pyruvate. Three different constructs, pLdhA71X, pLdhA48XI, and pLdhA89VII, containing various lengths of the ldhA gene fragment, were transformed into R. oryzae. This fungus rarely integrates DNA used for transformation, but instead relies on extra-chromosomal replication in a high-copy number. Plasmid pLdhA48XI was linearized prior to transformation in order to facilitate integration into the pyrG gene used for selection. Isolates transformed with ldhA containing plasmid were compared with both the wild-type parent strain and the auxotrophic recipient strain containing vector only. All isolates transformed with pLdhA71X or pLdhA48XI had multiple copies of the ldhA gene that resulted in ldhA transcript accumulation, LDH specific activity, and lactic acid production higher than the controls. Integration of plasmid pLdhA48XI increased the stability of the strain, but did not seem to offer any benefit for increasing lactic acid production. Since lactic acid fermentation competes with ethanol and fumaric acid production, it was not unexpected that increased lactic acid production was always concomitant with decreased ethanol and fumaric acid. Plasmid pLdhA71X, containing a large ldhA fragment (6.1 kb), routinely yielded higher levels of lactic acid than the smaller region (3.3 kb) used to construct plasmid pLdhA48XI. The greatest levels of ldhA transcript and enzyme production occurred with isolates transformed with plasmid pLdhA89VII. However, these transformants always produced less lactic acid and higher amounts of ethanol, fumaric, and glycerol compared with the control.