Comparative genomics of Penicillium rubens (IMI 15378)
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ABSTRACT: Comparative genomics of Alexander Fleming’s celebrated fungus Penicillium rubens (IMI 15378) sheds light on the evolution of penicillin synthesis genes
Project description:Using in silico modelling, such Genome-Scale Metabolic Network (GSMN), represents a promising approach to predicting and understanding the potential for specialised metabolite production in a given organism. To address these questions, we reconstructed a new high-quality GSMN for the Penicillium rubens Wisconsin 54-1255 strain, a commonly used model organism. Our reconstruction, iPrub22, adheres to current convention standards and quality criteria, incorporating updated functional annotations, orthology searches with different GSMN templates, data from previous reconstructions, and manual curation steps targeting basal and specialised metabolites. With a MEMOTE score of 74% and a metabolic coverage of 45%, iPrub22 includes 5,464 metabolites interconnected by 5,919 reactions, of which 5,033 are supported by at least one genomic sequence. Of the metabolites present in iPrub22, 13% are categorised as belonging to specialised metabolism.
Project description:The recent discovery of a velvet complex containing several regulators of secondary metabolism in the model fungus Aspergillus nidulans raises the question whether similar type complexes direct fungal development in genera other than Aspergillus. Penicillium chrysogenum is the industrial producer of the antibiotic penicillin, whose biosynthetic regulation is barely understood. Here we provide a functional analysis of two major homologues of the velvet complex in P. chrysogenum, that we have named PcvelA and PclaeA. Data from array analysis using a ?PcvelA deletion strain indicate a significant role of PcvelA on the expression of biosynthesis and developmental genes, including PclaeA. Northern hybridization and HPLC quantifications of penicillin titres clearly show that both PcvelA and PclaeA play a major role in penicillin biosynthesis. Both regulators are further involved in different and distinct developmental processes. While PcvelA deletion leads to light independent conidial formation, dichotomous branching of hyphae and pellet formation in shaking cultures, a ?PclaeA strain shows a severe impairment in conidiophore formation in both the light and dark. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays finally provide evidence for a velvet-like complex in Penicillium chrysogenum, with structurally conserved components that have distinct developmental roles, illustrating the functional plasticity of these regulators within filamentous ascomycetes. Transcriptomes of PcvelA- and PclaeA- deletion mutants were compared with expression data from recipient strain deltaPcku70 and reference strain P2niaD18 as a control
Project description:The recent discovery of a velvet complex containing several regulators of secondary metabolism in the model fungus Aspergillus nidulans raises the question whether similar type complexes direct fungal development in genera other than Aspergillus. Penicillium chrysogenum is the industrial producer of the antibiotic penicillin, whose biosynthetic regulation is barely understood. Here we provide a functional analysis of two major homologues of the velvet complex in P. chrysogenum, that we have named PcvelA and PclaeA. Data from array analysis using a ΔPcvelA deletion strain indicate a significant role of PcvelA on the expression of biosynthesis and developmental genes, including PclaeA. Northern hybridization and HPLC quantifications of penicillin titres clearly show that both PcvelA and PclaeA play a major role in penicillin biosynthesis. Both regulators are further involved in different and distinct developmental processes. While PcvelA deletion leads to light independent conidial formation, dichotomous branching of hyphae and pellet formation in shaking cultures, a ΔPclaeA strain shows a severe impairment in conidiophore formation in both the light and dark. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays finally provide evidence for a velvet-like complex in Penicillium chrysogenum, with structurally conserved components that have distinct developmental roles, illustrating the functional plasticity of these regulators within filamentous ascomycetes.