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Taxonomy, comparative genomics and evolutionary insights of Penicillium ucsense: a novel species in series Oxalica

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Abstract

The genomes of two Penicillium strains were sequenced and studied in this study: strain 2HH was isolated from the digestive tract of Anobium punctatum beetle larva in 1979 and the cellulase hypersecretory strain S1M29, derived from strain 2HH by a long-term mutagenesis process. With these data, the strains were reclassified and insight is obtained on molecular features related to cellulase hyperproduction and the albino phenotype of the mutant. Both strains were previously identified as Penicillium echinulatum and this investigation indicated that these should be reclassified. Phylogenetic and phenotype data showed that these strains represent a new Penicillium species in series Oxalica, for which the name Penicillium ucsense is proposed here. Six additional strains (SFC101850, SFCP10873, SFCP10886, SFCP10931, SFCP10932 and SFCP10933) collected from the marine environment in the Republic of Korea were also classified as this species, indicating a worldwide distribution of this new taxon. Compared to the closely related strain Penicillium oxalicum 114-2, the composition of cell wall-associated proteins of P. ucsense 2HH shows five fewer chitinases, considerable differences in the number of proteins related to β-d-glucan metabolism. The genomic comparison of 2HH and S1M29 highlighted single amino-acid substitutions in two major proteins (BGL2 and FlbA) that can be associated with the hyperproduction of cellulases. The study of melanin pathways shows that the S1M29 albino phenotype resulted from a single amino-acid substitution in the enzyme ALB1, a precursor of the 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN)-melanin biosynthesis. Our study provides important knowledge towards understanding species distribution, molecular mechanisms, melanin production and cell wall biosynthesis of this new Penicillium species.

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Data supporting the results reported in the article can be found in Supplementary Data or publicly available at NCBI databases.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Bahia State University (UNEB) and the University of Caxias do Sul (UCS).

Funding

We are grateful to the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for the DSc scholarship (88887.158496/2017-00 to ARL). This research was supported by grants from CAPES (3255/2013) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (472153/2013-7). MC and AJPD are CNPq Research Fellowship. We are grateful to Bahia State University (UNEB) for the leave of absence (3.145/2016 to ARL) and financial support.

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Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, visualisation, writing—original draft, review and editing: [ARL]; Assembly and annotation of genomes: [ARL, NSO and FPA]; Software for genome annotation and deposit of genomes: [EB]; Macro- and micromorphological characterization: [JH]; Collection and sequencing of molecular markers from strains of the Republic of Korea [MSP and YWL]; Macromorphological observation of albino phenotype: [RCF]; Supervision: [SAS]; Project administration, funding acquisition and resources: [MC and AJPD].

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Correspondence to Alexandre Rafael Lenz.

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Lenz, A.R., Balbinot, E., de Abreu, F.P. et al. Taxonomy, comparative genomics and evolutionary insights of Penicillium ucsense: a novel species in series Oxalica. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 115, 1009–1029 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-022-01746-4

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