Studies on biochemical composition of dormant spores of Aspergillus niger.

Biochemical composition, Aspergillus niger, Dormant spores.

Distinct from previously published data of other investigators based on washed spores, analytical data based on dry weight of dormant, unwashed spores of Aspergillus niger van Tieghem, have been presented. The constituent's measured were water content, sugars, organic acids, amino acids, N content and lipids. As percentage of the spore dry weight A.niger spores contain 3.14% and 1.0% of total sugars and organic acids respectively. A.niger spores contain about 4.28% total lipids of which 57.62% is polar and 42.37% is neutral. Most of the nonpolar lipids comprise of the hydrocarbons (46.16%) followed in decreasing order by triglycerides (27.75%), fatty acids (12.21%), sterol esters (7.77%) and free sterol (6.10%). The spore phospholipids comprise of phosphatidylcholine (19.18%), phosphatidylethanolamine (15.51%), phosphatidylserine (22.85%), lysophosphatidylethanolamine (26.93%) and lysophosphatidylserine (15.51%). A.niger spore proteins (10.43%) consist more of leucine and isoleucine. Total -N content consists mostly of protein - N (71.85%).