Abstract
Monascus purpureus is an important medicinal and edible microbial resource. To facilitate biological, biochemical, and molecular research on medicinal components of M. purpureus, we investigated the M. purpureus transcriptome by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). An RNA-seq library was created using RNA extracted from a mixed sample of M. purpureus expressing different levels of monacolin K output. In total 29,713 unigenes were assembled from more than 60 million high-quality short reads. A BLAST search revealed hits for 21,331 unigenes in at least one of the protein or nucleotide databases used in this study. The 22,365 unigenes were categorized into 48 functional groups based on Gene Ontology classification. Owing to the economic and medicinal importance of M. purpureus, most studies on this organism have focused on the pharmacological activity of chemical components and the molecular function of genes involved in their biogenesis. In this study, we performed quantitative real-time PCR to detect the expression of genes related to monacolin K (mokA-mokI) at different phases (2, 5, 8, and 12 days) of M. purpureus M1 and M1-36. Our study found that mokF modulates monacolin K biogenesis in M. purpureus. Nine genes were suggested to be associated with the monacolin K biosynthesis. Studies on these genes could provide useful information on secondary metabolic processes in M. purpureus. These results indicate a detailed resource through genetic engineering of monacolin K biosynthesis in M. purpureus and related species.
Highlights
Monascus purpureus is a mold that is an important medicinal and edible resource
We investigated the transcriptome of M. purpureus by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) [29,30,31], which was annotated using publicly available databases and tools to identify genes involved in the biosynthesis of fungal polyketone compounds that may be related to the tricarboxylic acid cycle [32]
MokC, mokD, mokE, mokF, mokH and mokI levels showed strong positive correlations with monacolin K concentration as compared to the observed expression profiles and previously measured monacolin K contents. These results suggest that differences in the expression patterns of M.purpureus genes account for monacolin K diversity
Summary
Monascus purpureus is a mold that is an important medicinal and edible resource. Products fermented with M. purpureus have been used for thousands of years in China and other Southeast Asian countries. In East Asian countries, RYR is traditionally used as a food flavoring agent, coloring agent, preservative, and as a health product to maintain lipid profiles and blood pressure, for instance by normalizing c-reactive protein levels in hypertension [22]. M. purpureus is a commercially important organism owing to its production of the medicinal ingredient monacolin K [23]; the biosynthesis pathway for this compound along with those of citrinin [24] and pigments (fungal polyketone compounds) has been linked to polyketide synthase
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