Engineered Aspergillus niger enables high-yield heterologous kojic acid production

Industrial-scale production of kojic acid (KA)—valued in cosmetics, food, and pharma—has been hindered by limited metabolic engineering strategies for native producers (e.g., Aspergillus oryzae ), which largely rely on random mutagenesis. To address this, Aspergillus niger was engineered as a heterologous host. A combinatorial strategy was employed, which included multi-copy integration of His-tagged kojA , overexpression of heterologous transporter AokojT , deletion of repressor nrkC , amplific