Enhancement of Monascus Azaphilone Pigments Production Without Citrinin Contamination by Targeting Overexpression of Histone Acetyltransferase MrEsa1 and Deletion of Polyketide Synthase PksCT
Jing Zhang, Shuyu Yang, Qi Wang, Qilu Liu, Junchi Chen, Yunxia Gong, Ruiping Xu, Yanchun Shao
TL;DR
Researchers improved pigment production in Monascus without making a harmful toxin by combining gene overexpression and deletion.
Contribution
A dual-targeting strategy decouples pigment production from toxin synthesis in fungi.
Findings
Deleting pksCT did not reduce MonAzPs yield in the overexpressed MrEsa1 strain.
MrEsa1 overexpression counteracts the negative impact of pksCT deletion on pigment production.
The modified strain showed accelerated growth and higher pigment yields compared to the wild type.
Abstract
Monascus spp. are renowned for producing valuable Monascus azaphilone pigments (MonAzPs), yet their biosynthesis is intrinsically linked to the co-production of the mycotoxin citrinin, posing a significant safety challenge and limiting industrial application. Conventional approaches to disrupt citrinin synthesis often inadvertently reduce MonAzPs yield. To circumvent this limitation, we employed a dual-targeting strategy in Monascus ruber. In this study, we selected the mresa1-overexpressed strain—which can produce more MonAzPs and citrinin—as wild strain to construct a pksCT-deleted strain and explore whether pksCT deletion can affect the enhancement of MonAzPs caused by MrEsa1 overexpression. The results showed that the growth, development, and production of MonAzPs in △pksCT-M7::PtrpC-mresa1 were comparable to those in M7::PtrpC-mresa1, showing accelerated growth and higher MonAzPs…
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Taxonomy
TopicsMicrobial Metabolism and Applications · Polyamine Metabolism and Applications · Microbial Natural Products and Biosynthesis