Dynamics of alkaloid biosynthesis in correlation with lipid biosynthesis in submerged cultivated strains of Claviceps purpurea

Lipid metabolism is associated with alkaloid biosynthesis due to acetyl-CoA common precursor. For this reason, in the present paper the dynamics of total alkaloid content is investigated both in mycelia and supernatants of some submerged cultivated strains of Claviceps purpurea, as well as the dynamics of the brute lipid amount in the mycelia of the studied strains. The comparative analysis of the results concerning the total alkaloid content in the mycelia of analyzed strains and in the supernatants of culture media generally shows that the profile of the variation curves is comparable for the analyzed strains and the value amplitudes are dependent of them. At certain ages, as a main trend we found that the lipid accumulation in the mycelia of investigated strains takes place in a parallel manner with alkaloid biosynthesis and the crude lipid level is kept stable or diminishes after alkaloid biosynthesis begins.