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Penicillium chrysogenum

 

 
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Penicillium chrysogenum
 
 
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Penicillium chrysogenum is a mold that is widely distributed in nature, and is often found living on foods and in indoor environments. It was previously known as Penicillium notatum. It has rarely been reported as a cause of human disease
Disease

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and Medical signs....
. It is the source of several ß-lactam antibiotic
Beta-lactam antibiotic

?-lactam antibiotics are a broad class of antibiotics that include penicillin derivatives, cephalosporins, monobactams, carbapenems, and Beta-lactamase inhibitors, that is, any antibiotic agent that contains a beta-lactam nucleus in its molecular structure....
s, most significantly penicillin
Penicillin

Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They are Beta-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms....
. Other secondary metabolite
Metabolite

Metabolites are the intermediates and products of metabolism. The term metabolite is usually restricted to small molecules. A primary metabolite is directly involved in normal growth, development, and reproduction....
s of P. chrysogenum include various different penicillins
Penicillin

Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They are Beta-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms....
, roquefortine C
Roquefortine C

Roquefortin C is a mycotoxin produced by various fungi, particularly species from the Penicillium genus. It was first isolated from a strain of Penicillium roqueforti, a species commercially used to make Roquefort cheese....
, meleagrin, chrysogine, xanthocillins
Xanthocillin

Xantocillin , also known as xanthocillin X or ophthocillin, was the first reported natural product found to contain the isocyanide functional group....
, secalonic acids, sorrentanone, sorbicillin, and PR-toxin.

Like the many other species of the genus Penicillium
Penicillium

Penicillium is a genus of ascomyceteous fungi that includes:*Penicillium bilaiae, which is an agricultural inoculant.*Penicillium camemberti, which is used in the production of Camembert and Brie cheese cheeses....
, P.






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Encyclopedia


Penicillium chrysogenum is a mold that is widely distributed in nature, and is often found living on foods and in indoor environments. It was previously known as Penicillium notatum. It has rarely been reported as a cause of human disease
Disease

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and Medical signs....
. It is the source of several ß-lactam antibiotic
Beta-lactam antibiotic

?-lactam antibiotics are a broad class of antibiotics that include penicillin derivatives, cephalosporins, monobactams, carbapenems, and Beta-lactamase inhibitors, that is, any antibiotic agent that contains a beta-lactam nucleus in its molecular structure....
s, most significantly penicillin
Penicillin

Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They are Beta-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms....
. Other secondary metabolite
Metabolite

Metabolites are the intermediates and products of metabolism. The term metabolite is usually restricted to small molecules. A primary metabolite is directly involved in normal growth, development, and reproduction....
s of P. chrysogenum include various different penicillins
Penicillin

Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They are Beta-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms....
, roquefortine C
Roquefortine C

Roquefortin C is a mycotoxin produced by various fungi, particularly species from the Penicillium genus. It was first isolated from a strain of Penicillium roqueforti, a species commercially used to make Roquefort cheese....
, meleagrin, chrysogine, xanthocillins
Xanthocillin

Xantocillin , also known as xanthocillin X or ophthocillin, was the first reported natural product found to contain the isocyanide functional group....
, secalonic acids, sorrentanone, sorbicillin, and PR-toxin.

Like the many other species of the genus Penicillium
Penicillium

Penicillium is a genus of ascomyceteous fungi that includes:*Penicillium bilaiae, which is an agricultural inoculant.*Penicillium camemberti, which is used in the production of Camembert and Brie cheese cheeses....
, P. chrysogenum reproduces by forming dry chains of spores (or conidia
Conidium

Conidia, sometimes termed conidiospores, are Asexual reproduction, non-motile spores of a fungus; they are also called mitospores due to the way they are generated through the cellular process of mitosis....
) from brush-shaped conidiophores. The conidia are typically carried by air currents to new colonisation sites. In P. chrysogenum the conidia are blue to blue-green, and the mold sometimes exudes a yellow pigment. However, P. chrysogenum cannot be identified based on colour alone. Observations of morphology and microscopic features are needed to confirm its identity.

The airborne spores of P. chrysogenum are important human allergens. Vacuolar and alkaline serine proteases have been implicated as the major allergenic proteins.

P. chrysogenum has been used industrially to produce penicillin and xanthocillin X, to treat pulp mill waste, and to produce the enzymes polyamine oxidase, phospho-gluconate dehydrogenase, and glucose oxidase.

Science and History


Penicillin
Penicillin

Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They are Beta-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms....
 was discovered in 1928 when Alexander Fleming's
Alexander Fleming

Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scotland biologist and pharmacologist. Fleming published many articles on bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy....
 lab assistant left a window open overnight and had mold spores cover his Staphylococcus
Staphylococcus

Staphylococcus is a genus of Gram-positive Bacterium. Under the microscope they appear round , and form in grape-like clusters.The Staphylococcus genus include just thirty-three species....
 bacteria
Bacteria

The Bacteria are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals....
l specimens in a Petri dish
Petri dish

A Petri dish is a shallow glass or plastic cylindrical lidded dish that microbiologists use to microbiological culture cell s. It was named after Germany bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri, who invented it when working as an assistant to Robert Koch....
. At first he was very irritated at the contamination but as he was about to throw the specimens away, he noticed something interesting. He looked under the microscope at the bacteria surrounding the blue-green mold and noticed that many were dead or dying due to the mold preventing the bacteria from making new cell walls and reproducing. He identified the mold as Penicillium notatum, which releases the antibiotic penicillin G into the medium. After this he did some testing on humans and animals and discovered that not only did it kill bacteria, but that it was suitable for use in humans and animals. However, the discovery did not attract much attention until the 1940s when Howard Florey and Ernst Chain developed methods for mass production
Mass production

Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines. The concepts of mass production are applied to various kinds of products, from fluids and particulates handled in bulk to discrete solid parts to assemblies of such parts ....
 and application in humans, incited by the urgent war-time need for antibacterial agents. Army pilots sent back soil from around the world to be tested for the right kind of mold. Even the people of Peoria, Illinois were told to bring in any molds that they found around their homes. It has also been said that the scientists working on this project kept an eye out for similar looking molds while grocery shopping or when they were cleaning around the kitchen especially their refrigerators. The discovery of penicillin ushered in a new age of antibiotics derived from microorganisms.

Genetics and Evolution


The ability to produce penicillin
Penicillin

Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They are Beta-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms....
 appears to have evolved over thousands of years, and is shared with several other related fungi. It is believed to confer a selective advantage during competition with bacteria for food sources. However, some bacteria have developed the ability to survive penicillin exposure by producing penicillinase
Beta-lactamase

Beta-lactamases are enzymes produced by some bacteria and are responsible for their antibiotic resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics like penicillins, cephalosporins , cephamycins, and carbapenems ....
s, enzymes that degrade penicillin. Penicillinase production is one mechanism by which bacteria can become penicillin resistant.

The principal genes responsible for producing penicillin
Penicillin

Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They are Beta-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms....
, pcbAB, pcbC and penDE are closely linked, forming a cluster on chromosome I. Some high-producing Penicillium chrysogenum strains used for the industrial production of penicillin have been shown to have multiple tandem copies of the penicillin gene cluster.

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