Itaconic acid is one of the top bio-based chemical building blocks and thus a promising platform compound for the production of polymers, coatings, chemical compounds and biofuels. It is an important monomer for the synthesis of, e.g. poly-acrylates, rubber, colours, additives, adhesives, emulsifying agents, lipids, pharmaceuticals, herbicides and biodegradable polymers for the packaging industry. Currently, Itaconic acid is commercially produced by microbial
fermentation using filamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus, such as A. terreus. This itaconic acid producer is well characterized, but has several disadvantages. Filamentous fungi are particularly problematic as their morphology is difficult to be controlled in
fermentation systems, thus the synthesis process and the quality of production is varying. The offered innovative production process of itaconic acid uses genes encoding for the biosynthesis pathway of unicellular fungi from the family of Ustilaginaceae, in particular Ustilago ...