Expression of Highly Active Bacterial Phospholipase A2 in Yeast Using Intein-Mediated Delayed Protein Autoactivation

Penicillium chrysogenum: Beyond the penicillin

Almost one century after the Sir Alexander Fleming's fortuitous discovery of penicillin and the identification of the fungal producer as Penicillium notatum, later Penicillium chrysogenum (currently reidentified as Penicillium rubens), the molecular mechanisms behind the massive production of penicillin titers by industrial strains could be considered almost fully characterized. However, this filamentous fungus is not only circumscribed to penicillin, and instead, it seems to be full of surprises, thereby producing important metabolites and providing expanded biotechnological applications. This review, in addition to summarizing the classical role of P. chrysogenum as penicillin producer, highlights its ability to generate an array of additional bioactive secondary metabolites and enzymes, together with the use of this microorganism in relevant biotechnological processes, such as bioremediation, biocontrol, production of bioactive nanoparticles and compounds with pharmaceutical interest, revalorization of agricultural and food-derived wastes or the enhancement of food industrial processes and the agricultural production.

Penicillium chrysogenum, a Vintage Model with a Cutting-Edge Profile in Biotechnology

The discovery of penicillin entailed a decisive breakthrough in medicine. No other medical advance has ever had the same impact in the clinical practise. The fungus Penicillium chrysogenum (reclassified as P. rubens) has been used for industrial production of penicillin ever since the forties of the past century; industrial biotechnology developed hand in hand with it, and currently P. chrysogenum is a thoroughly studied model for secondary metabolite production and regulation. In addition to its role as penicillin producer, recent synthetic biology advances have put P. chrysogenum on the path to become a cell factory for the production of metabolites with biotechnological interest. In this review, we tell the history of P. chrysogenum, from the discovery of penicillin and the first isolation of strains with high production capacity to the most recent research advances with the fungus. We will describe how classical strain improvement programs achieved the goal of increasing production and how the development of different molecular tools allowed further improvements. The discovery of the penicillin gene cluster, the origin of the penicillin genes, the regulation of penicillin production, and a compilation of other P. chrysogenum secondary metabolites will also be covered and updated in this work.