page_title: Aspergillus
section_title: Commercial importance
hierarchical_section_title: Aspergillus / Commercial importance
caption_attribution_description: English: Fungi (ascomycetes) growing in axenic cultures, each of which is a culture of one selected organism and is free of all other organisms, enabling study of the cultured organism in isolation. The fungi were obtained from soil.
context_page_description: Aspergillus is a genus consisting of a few hundred mould species found in various climates worldwide.
  Aspergillus was first catalogued in 1729 by the Italian priest and biologist Pier Antonio Micheli. Viewing the fungi under a microscope, Micheli was reminded of the shape of an aspergillum, from Latin spargere, and named the genus accordingly. Aspergillum is an asexual spore-forming structure common to all Aspergillus species; around one-third of species are also known to have a sexual stage.
  Aspergillus can be eliminated from homes with the help of either rubbing alcohol or by using strong air purifiers to eliminate the effects on the lungs.
context_section_description: Species of Aspergillus are important medically and commercially. Some species can cause infection in humans and other animals. Some infections found in animals have been studied for years, while other species found in animals have been described as new and specific to the investigated disease, and others have been known as names already in use for organisms such as saprophytes. More than 60 Aspergillus species are medically relevant pathogens. For humans, a range of diseases such as infection to the external ear, skin lesions, and ulcers classed as mycetomas are found.
  Other species are important in commercial microbial fermentations. For example, alcoholic beverages such as Japanese sake, shōchū, and awamori are often made from rice or other starchy ingredients (like manioc), rather than from grapes or malted barley. Typical microorganisms used to make alcohol, such as yeasts of the genus Saccharomyces, cannot ferment these starches. Therefore, koji molds such as A. oryzae, A. luchuensis, and A. awamori is used to first break down the starches into simpler sugars.
  Members of the genus are also sources of natural products that can be used in the development of medications to treat human disease.
  Perhaps the largest application of Aspergillus niger is as the major source of citric acid; this organism accounts for over 99% of global citric acid production, or more than 1.4 million tonnes per year. A. niger is also commonly used for the production of native and foreign enzymes, including glucose oxidase,  lysozyme, and lactase. In these instances, the culture is rarely grown on a solid substrate, although this is still common practice in Japan, but is more often grown as a submerged culture in a bioreactor. In this way, the most important parameters can be strictly controlled, and maximal productivity can be achieved. This process also makes it far easier to separate the chemical or enzyme of importance from the medium, and is therefore far more cost-effective.
caption: Various Penicillium, Aspergillus spp. and other fungi growing in axenic culture
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