Insight into the phylogeny and metabolic divergence of Monascus species (M. pilosus, M. ruber, and M. purpureus) at the genome level

Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbiology

Yufeng Mao¹  Zhitao Mao¹  Xiaoping Liao²  Panting Chen³  Zhiyu Zhang³  Mengfei Cui³  Juxing Li³  Zhenjing Li³  Huanhuan Liu³  Changlu Wang³  Qingbin Guo³ 

[1] Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Engineering Biology for Low-Carbon Manufacturing, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China;Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Engineering Biology for Low-Carbon Manufacturing, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China;Haihe Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin, China;State Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China;State Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin, China;

关键词: Monascus;    phylogenetic analysis;    taxonomic divergence;    secondary metabolite gene clusters;    pan-genome;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmicb.2023.1199144

 received in 2023-04-03, accepted in 2023-05-09,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSpecies of the genus Monascus are economically important and widely used in the production of food colorants and monacolin K. However, they have also been known to produce the mycotoxin citrinin. Currently, taxonomic knowledge of this species at the genome level is insufficient.MethodsThis study presents genomic similarity analyses through the analysis of the average nucleic acid identity of the genomic sequence and the whole genome alignment. Subsequently, the study constructed a pangenome of Monascus by reannotating all the genomes and identifying a total of 9,539 orthologous gene families. Two phylogenetic trees were constructed based on 4,589 single copy orthologous protein sequences and all the 5,565 orthologous proteins, respectively. In addition, carbohydrate active enzymes, secretome, allergic proteins, as well as secondary metabolite gene clusters were compared among the included 15 Monascus strains.ResultsThe results clearly revealed a high homology between M. pilosus and M. ruber, and their distant relationship with M. purpureus. Accordingly, all the included 15 Monascus strains should be classified into two distinctly evolutionary clades, namely the M. purpureus clade and the M. pilosus-M. ruber clade. Moreover, gene ontology enrichment showed that the M. pilosus-M. ruber clade had more orthologous genes involved with environmental adaptation than the M. purpureus clade. Compared to Aspergillus oryzae, all the Monascus species had a substantial gene loss of carbohydrate active enzymes. Potential allergenic and fungal virulence factor proteins were also found in the secretome of Monascus. Furthermore, this study identified the pigment synthesis gene clusters present in all included genomes, but with multiple nonessential genes inserted in the gene cluster of M. pilosus and M. ruber compared to M. purpureus. The citrinin gene cluster was found to be intact and highly conserved only among M. purpureus genomes. The monacolin K gene cluster was found only in the genomes of M. pilosus and M. ruber, but the sequence was more conserved in M. ruber.ConclusionThis study provides a paradigm for phylogenetic analysis of the genus Monascus, and it is believed that this report will lead to a better understanding of these food microorganisms in terms of classification, metabolic differentiation, and safety.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Zhang, Cui, Chen, Li, Mao, Mao, Li, Guo, Wang, Liao and Liu.