Genome sequencing and secondary metabolism of the postharvest pathogen Penicillium griseofulvum

Abstract

BackgroundPenicillium griseofulvum is associated in stored apples with blue mould, the most important postharvest disease of pome fruit. This pathogen can simultaneously produce both detrimental and beneficial secondary metabolites (SM). In order to gain insight into SM synthesis in P. griseofulvum in vitro and during disease development on apple, we sequenced the genome of P. griseofulvum strain PG3 and analysed important SM clusters.ResultsPG3 genome sequence (29.3 Mb) shows that P. griseofulvum branched off after the divergence of P. oxalicum but before the divergence of P. chrysogenum. Genome-wide analysis of P. griseofulvum revealed putative gene clusters for patulin, griseofulvin and roquefortine C biosynthesis. Furthermore, we quantified the SM production in vitro and on apples during the course of infection. The expression kinetics of key genes of SM produced in infected apple were examined. We found additional SM clusters, including those potentially responsible for the synthesis of penicillin, yanuthone D, cyclopiazonic acid and we predicted a cluster putatively responsible for the synthesis of chanoclavine I.ConclusionsThese findings provide relevant information to understand the molecular basis of SM biosynthesis in P. griseofulvum, to allow further research directed to the overexpression or blocking the synthesis of specific SM.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-2347-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Grazing practices affect the soil microbial community composition in a Tibetan alpine meadow

“…Member of the Pezizaceae , including Boudiera , is generally saprophytic fungi, which grow on soil, decomposing wood and animal dung (Hansen, LoBuglio, & Pfister, ), and may benefit from the abundance of dung substrate in AG. Finally, WG soil had high concentration of P. griseofulvum , which may have strong antagonistic interactions with other bacterial and fungal species through the production of mycotoxins and other antimicrobial compounds common to many Penicillium species (Banani et al, ).…”

Mycobiome in the Gut: A Multiperspective Review

“…Fungi also possess great potential in producing a broad spectrum of metabolites, which can be applied for medication or therapeutic purposes. For example, griseofulvin isolated from Penicillium griseofulvum served as antimycotic drug [85], while fusidic acid from Fusidium coccineum [86] and cephalosporins from Acremonium chrysogenum act as antibacterial agents, and lovastatin isolated from Aspergillus terreus and mevastatin from Penicillium citrinum [87] can be used as lipid lowering agents. Besides this, similar like bacteria, fungi can express metabolites which can influence host homeostasis and exert biological effects on host, as part of fungi-host interactions [17].…”

Molecular aspects in pathogen-fruit interactions: Virulence and resistance

“…Colletotrichum (Gan et al, 2013). The genomes of the following specific postharvest fruit pathogens from the genus Penicillium have also been recently sequenced: P. digitatum (Marcet-Houben et al, 2012;Sun et al, 2011); P. griseofulvum (Banani et al, 2016); and P. expansum and P. italicum (Ballester et al, 2015;Li et al, 2015). There are also ongoing genome sequencing projects for other relevant postharvest fungi, such as Monilinia fructicola and M. laxa.…”