As xylose and glucose were the main monosaccharides of WBH, a novel strategy was developed for the efficient and economical fumaric acid biosynthesis using WBH as carbon substrate. WB treated
by acid at 100 C for 30 min resulted in the enhanced fumaric acid production. A suitable morphology (0.55 mm) was obtained by optimizing the seed medium. Comparative metabolic profiling
analysis uncovered the limitations of xylose metabolism. Fumaric acid production ultimately reached 20.2 g/L using the optimized WBH medium. This study provides an encouraging means of producing fumaric acid from low-cost renewable resource.