Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Botany and Microbiology

This study aimed to find a local Aspergillus isolates from the Egyptian soil and air that are capable of producing lovastatin. Lovastatin is one of the natural statins that are used for controlling hyperchlosterolemia, act as a pleotropic drug and also recent researches have shown that lovastatin has promising results for treatment of different types of cancer cells, so 19 Aspergillus isolates were screened for the production of lovastatin using two-stages process of liquid submerged batch fermentation that is consisting of a growth step (seed medium) and a production step (production media) under shaking conditions. Two different seed media and two production media were used for screening; one of them was suitable for production of lovastatin while the other was not, HPLC used for detection of lovastatin in the fungal extracts, 18 isolates out of 19 were capable of production of lovastatin indicating that Aspergillus species may represent a good source for new lovastatin producers, isolate that produced the highest amount of lovastatin (Aspergillus terreus S57) was selected to be identified using molecular biology techniques (ITS region) and to isolate LovF gene (lovastatin diketide synthase encoding gene), which is encoding lovastatin diketide synthase enzyme (LDKS) that is responsible for the conversion of monacolin j to lovastatin

Issued also as CD