Itaconic Acid Metabolic Engineering Service

Itaconic Acid is a key building block for Bio-monomers Resins/Adhesives e.g. superabsorbent polymers, synthetic latex. The traditional production method faces challenges: Traditional fungal fermentation Aspergillus terreus is slow and limited by cell physiology. The resulting low pH limits cell growth and increases the high cost of purification due to acid neutralization and downstream separation.

CD Biosynsis offers a next-generation metabolic engineering platform for Itaconic Acid production: Metabolic Engineering: Transfer the Itaconic Acid pathway to industrial yeast S. cerevisiae or Y. lipolytica . Yeast offers faster growth and higher industrial scalability. We maximize the carbon flux by focusing on: Enhance the cis-Aconitate precursor supply and overexpress cis-Aconitate Decarboxylase CadA . CadA is the key rate-limiting enzyme. To ensure high-titer production, we address host tolerance through Toxicity Tolerance: Engineer hosts for tolerance to high acid concentration , enabling high-density fermentation at lower pH for cheaper downstream processing.

Pain Points

The microbial production of Itaconic Acid faces these key challenges:

• Slow Fermentation Kinetics: The native producer Aspergillus terreus is a slow grower , leading to long fermentation cycles and low productivity, increasing operational costs.
• Low pH and Toxicity: Itaconic acid production requires low external pH to maximize the non-dissociated form for transport, but this low pH is inhibitory to cell growth and metabolism , resulting in reduced final titer.
• Pathway Bottlenecks: The conversion of the Krebs cycle intermediate cis-Aconitate to Itaconic Acid is limited by the activity of the native enzymes and precursor availability.
• Expensive Downstream Processing: Industrial production often requires the maintenance of high external pH to support cell growth, necessitating costly acid neutralization and salt-heavy purification processes .

A successful bio-based strategy must combine high-efficiency host metabolism with high acid tolerance.

Solutions

CD Biosynsis utilizes integrated metabolic and host engineering to optimize Itaconic Acid production:

Industrial Host Switching

           

We transfer the full pathway to robust, fast-growing industrial yeasts S. cerevisiae or Y. lipolytica to achieve higher cell density and faster fermentation kinetics.

Flux and CadA Overexpression

We use metabolic engineering to increase the availability of cis-Aconitate precursor from the Krebs cycle and overexpress the rate-limiting enzyme CadA cis-Aconitate Decarboxylase .

Acid Toxicity Tolerance

We engineer the cell membrane, proton pumps, and stress response pathways to improve cell viability under high external acid concentrations , enabling low-pH fermentation.

Optimized Carbon Source Utilization

We tune the host for efficient consumption of cheap, alternative carbon sources e.g. glycerol or lignocellulosic sugars, reducing raw material costs. [Image of High Conversion Efficiency Icon]

This integrated approach maximizes productivity, reduces downstream costs, and increases overall economic viability.

Advantages

Our Itaconic Acid engineering service is dedicated to pursuing the following production goals:

Significantly Increased Productivity Icon

Using fast-growing yeast dramatically reduces fermentation time and increases the product mass per volume per hour.

Lower Downstream Purification Cost Icon

Tolerance to low pH allows fermentation at the acid's pKa, minimizing neutralization and simplifying purification. [Image of Cost Reduction Icon]

Maximize Carbon Flux Icon

Combined precursor supply and CadA overexpression ensures high metabolic flow to the final product.

Robust Industrial Host Icon

Engineered industrial yeasts are amenable to large-scale fermentation and high-cell-density culture.

High Titer Achievement Icon

Improved acid tolerance and metabolic efficiency enable the strain to accumulate high concentrations of Itaconic Acid.

We deliver a high-productivity, cost-effective yeast cell factory for sustainable Itaconic Acid production.

Process

Our Itaconic Acid strain engineering service follows a rigorous, multi-stage research workflow:

• Pathway Transfer and Host Selection: Introduce the CadA gene and accessory genes from A. terreus into the selected industrial yeast host S. cerevisiae or Y. lipolytica.
• Metabolic Precursor Engineering: Overexpress key enzymes of the Krebs cycle e.g. Citrate Synthase to increase the availability of the cis-Aconitate intermediate.
• Toxicity Tolerance Engineering: Perform adaptive laboratory evolution or targeted gene modification e.g. proton pump regulation to improve acid tolerance and low-pH viability.
• Fermentation Process Development: Optimize fed-batch fermentation strategies using cheap carbon sources and precisely control pH to achieve optimal balance between cell growth and downstream cost reduction.
• Product Titer and Productivity Analysis: Quantify the final Itaconic Acid titer and productivity g/L, g/L/h via HPLC and validate the acid tolerance of the engineered strain.

Technical communication is maintained throughout the process, focusing on timely feedback regarding yield and product quality attributes.

Explore the potential for a high-productivity, low-cost Itaconic Acid supply. CD Biosynsis provides customized strain and process engineering solutions:

• Detailed Titer and Productivity Reports g/L, g/L/h from low-pH fermentation runs.
• Consultation on downstream separation protocols that leverage the strain's acid tolerance for cost savings.
• Experimental reports include complete raw data on strain viability at low pH, byproduct formation, and CadA enzyme activity .