Pharmacological research on (CHA), a marine-derived quinazolinone alkaloid with significant cytotoxic activity, is restricted by low yields and is a problem that needs to be settled urgently. In this work, the selection of additional nitrogen sources and the optimization of additional concentrations and longer fermentation times using ammonium acetate, were investigated. CHA production was optimized to 62.1 mg/l with the addition of 50 mM ammonium acetate at 120 h of the fermentation in the shaker flask. This feeding strategy significantly increased 3- deoxy-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate synthase activity and transcript levels of critical genes (laeA, dahp and trpC) in the shikimate pathway compared with the non-treatment group. In addition, the selection of the feeding rate (0.01 and 0.03 g/l/h) was investigated in a 5-L bioreactor. As a result, CHA production was increased by 57.9 mg/l with a 0.01 g/l/h ammonium acetate feeding rate. This work shows that the strategy of ammonium acetate supplementation had an effective role in improving CHA production by Aspergillus fumigatus CY018. It also shows that this strategy could serve as an important example of large-scale fermentation of a marine fungus in submerged culture.
Keywords: Aspergillus fumigatus; Chaetominine; ammonium acetate; feeding strategy; marine-derived fungus.