Fig. 1

Screening for the production of organic acids from glycerol. a Rank-ordered glycerol concentration after 355 h of cultivation in 24-deep well plates containing MTM with 50 g L⁻¹ glycerol, 0.8 g L⁻¹ NH₄Cl, and 100 g L⁻¹ CaCO₃ for 126 different Ustilaginaceae. The glycerol concentrations and strain numbers are indicated in Table 3. Strains with high-glycerol consumption (indicated by the red box) were re-screened for acid production. b Rank-ordered itaconate concentration (open circles), malate concentration (closed squares), and succinate concentration (open triangles) after 383 h of cultivation in 24-deep well plates containing MTM with 100 g L⁻¹ glycerol, 0.8 g L⁻¹ NH₄Cl, and 100 g L⁻¹ CaCO₃ for 24 selected Ustilaginaceae. Strains with good production (indicated by arrows) were evaluated in detail. c Malate concentration and d itaconate concentration for different Ustilaginaceae cultivated in shake flasks containing MTM with 200 g L⁻¹ glycerol, 0.8 g L⁻¹ NH₄Cl, and 100 g L⁻¹ CaCO₃. Error bars indicate deviation from the mean (n = 2)