Chemical mutagenesis and high throughput media optimization in Tolypocladium inflatum MTCC-3538 leads to enhanced production of cyclosporine A.

Diethyl sulphate-based mutagenesis was performed on fungal strain Tolypocladium inflatum MTCC-3538. Two mutant morphotypes MT1-3538 and MT2-3538 were selected for further chemo-profiling studies. LCMS/MS profiling of fungal crude extract confirmed that the wild-type and mutant strains (MT1-3538, MT2-3538) were competent to produce cyclosporine A. MT2-3538 produced 2.1 fold higher cyclosporine A in comparison to the wild type. Further, LCMS-based high throughput media optimization was performed for MT2-3538 in 20 different media combinations to increase cyclosporine A yield. On the basis of ion-intensity profiling, media combination consisting of Glucose 0.1 g/L; Peptone 0.005 g/L and Valine 0.005 g/L was selected and used for up-scaling purpose. Mutant MT2-3538 with optimized media combination increased cyclosporine yield 16 fold and could potentially be exploited for commercial outcomes. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-022-03219-x. © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2022.