Breeding of high-lovastatin Monascus strains

Using Monascus Purpureus HW as original strain, LiCl mutation breading was conducted for increasing the production of lovastatin. The optimal amount of LiCl (1mol/L) was the 200μL. Six of high-lovastatin mutants were respectively obtained through determination of lovastatin in the broth by HPLC. Among these mutants, the yield of lovastatin by HW3, HW5 and HW6 reached 35.94, 38.86 and 30.07mg/L, which were 214% , 239% and 169% higher than that by the original strain, respectively. And the development of colony morphologies indicated that there was a positive correlation between the capacity of lovastatin and pigment among these mutants. Furthermore, colonies with or without folds also affect the performance of lovastatin production. The yield of lovastatin by HW3, HW5 and HW6 decreased by 11.8% , 14.9% and 32.1% , after subculture for 10 times, respectively. Therefore, the HW3 and HW5 mutants are stable strains that are worth further study.