tFumaric acid production by fungal fermentation from renewable resources has received much attention,but suffers from low productivity and yield largely because of poor cell morphology limiting mass transfer.In this study, a simple seed culture medium was developed with soybean meal hydrolysate (SMH) as thenitrogen source for controlling the morphology of Rhizopus oryzae ATCC 20344. With the optimal seed culture conditions (pH 3.0, SMH concentration: 30% (v/v), and inoculation spore concentration: 8 × 107/L),uniformly dispersed mycelial clumps with a diameter of ∼0.1 mm were formed, which gave high fumaricacid production from glucose in shake flasks, reaching a fumaric acid titer of 50.2 g/L and yield of 0.72 g/g glucose. Compared to the fermentation with cell pellets, the fermentation with mycelial clumps generated with SMH as nitrogen source increased fumaric acid production because of improved mass transfer. This
process can lower the cost for bio-based fumaric acid and provide a novel way of using soybean meal besides its current use as animal feed supplement.