Abstract
In the present study, the complete genome of a filamentous fungus Aspergillus terreus ATCC 20542 was sequenced, assembled, and annotated. This strain is mainly recognized for being a model wild-type lovastatin producer and a parental strain of high-yielding industrial mutants. It is also a microorganism with a rich repertoire of secondary metabolites that has been a subject of numerous bioprocess-related studies. In terms of continuity, the genomic sequence provided in this work is of the highest quality among all the publicly available genomes of A. terreus strains. The comparative analysis revealed considerable diversity with regard to the catalog of biosynthetic gene clusters found in A. terreus. Even though the cluster of lovastatin biosynthesis was found to be well-conserved at the species level, several unique genes putatively associated with metabolic functions were detected in A. terreus ATCC 20542 that were not detected in other investigated genomes. The analysis was conducted also in the context of the primary metabolic pathways (sugar catabolism, biomass degradation potential, organic acid production), where the visible differences in gene copy numbers were detected. However, the species-level genomic diversity of A. terreus was more evident for secondary metabolism than for the well-conserved primary metabolic pathways. The newly sequenced genome of A. terreus ATCC 20542 was found to harbor several unique sequences, which can be regarded as interesting subjects for future experimental efforts on A. terreus metabolism and fungal biosynthetic capabilities.Key points• The high-quality genome of Aspergillus terreus ATCC 20542 has been assembled and annotated.• Comparative analysis with other sequenced Aspergillus terreus strains has revealed considerable diversity in biosynthetic gene repertoire, especially related to secondary metabolism.• The unique genomic features of A. terreus ATCC 20542 are discussed.
Highlights
IntroductionWolczanska 213, 90-924 Lodz, Poland invasive fungal infections (Lass-Flörl 2018; Pastor and Guarro 2014; Steinbach et al 2004), the microbial production of itaconic acid, an important building block used in chemical industry (Klement and Buchs 2013; Krull et al 2017; Okabe et al 2009), and the biosynthesis of lovastatin, a secondary metabolite applied as a cholesterollowering drug in hypercholesterolemia treatments (Alberts et al 1980; Barrios-González and Miranda 2010; Endo 2010; Hasan et al 2019; Mulder et al 2015)
Aspergillus terreus is a species associated mainly with three distinct scientific and engineering areas, namely, the Institute of Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology, Lodz University of Technology, B
Only a small portion (138,520 bp) of the A. terreus American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) 20542 genome was made available to the public
Summary
Wolczanska 213, 90-924 Lodz, Poland invasive fungal infections (Lass-Flörl 2018; Pastor and Guarro 2014; Steinbach et al 2004), the microbial production of itaconic acid, an important building block used in chemical industry (Klement and Buchs 2013; Krull et al 2017; Okabe et al 2009), and the biosynthesis of lovastatin, a secondary metabolite applied as a cholesterollowering drug in hypercholesterolemia treatments (Alberts et al 1980; Barrios-González and Miranda 2010; Endo 2010; Hasan et al 2019; Mulder et al 2015) This microorganism is considered to be a rich source of biotechnologically relevant enzymes, e.g., cellulases, xylanases, and lipases (Ghanem et al 2000; Sethi et al 2016; Sohail et al 2016). Even though Microbia (the former name of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Boston, Massachusetts, USA), an industrial biotechnology company, did share the sequence data of A. terreus ATCC 20542 in relation with the transcriptomic and metabolomic experiments on lovastatin production (Askenazi et al 2003), the genomic fragment that was made publicly available encompassed only 0.14 Mb of sequence and was far from being considered a completely sequenced genome
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