Effects of nutrient restriction on growth and triterpene synthesis of Inonotus obliquus

Abstract:

[Objective] Carbon and nitrogen sources play an important role in providing the energy required for fungal growth and increasing secondary metabolite production. This study aims to investigate the effects of carbon and nitrogen restriction on the growth of Inonotus obliquus and the production of triterpenoid secondary metabolites. [Methods] l-glutamine and d-anhydrous glucose were used as the nitrogen and carbon sources, respectively. A nutrient-sufficient medium (0.877 g/L l-glutamine and 20.000 g/L of d-anhydrous glucose) served as the control group (CK). The experimental groups included a nitrogen-limited medium (N-L) with 0.044 g/L l-glutamine and a carbon-limited medium (C-L) with 2.000 g/L d-anhydrous glucose. In the plate experiment, inoculated plates were incubated at 28 ℃ in a constant temperature incubator, and colony diameters were measured and recorded daily. In the shake flask fermentation experiment, samples were collected on the 5th and 10th days to measure biomass, triterpene content, and the expression levels of triterpene synthesis-related genes. [Results] The plate experiment showed that the C-L group had the fastest mycelium extension, but the mycelium was sparse, and the aging was greatly delayed. The N-L group exhibited faster mycelium extension than the CK group but slower than the C-L group, with the fastest mycelium aging. The shake flask fermentation results showed that the N-L group had the highest biomass. qPCR results demonstrated an upregulation trend in most triterpenoid synthase genes under C-L and N-L conditions. GC-MS analysis revealed that both lanosterol and inotodiol content increased in the C-L and N-L groups compared to the CK group. [Conclusion] Nutritional restriction conditions stimulate the accumulation of triterpenes in I. obliquus.